“Republicans choke on scripture while they pass legislation that is both sloppy and fatal, and nothing Christian about it, denying women the right to essential abortion care.”

“I come before you today to offer a stark and damning picture, not to dissuade us from the work ahead, but to call us to action.”

On Fourth Anniversary of Devastating Dobbs Decision, Pressley Issues Call to Action, Uplifts Families Impacted by Republicans Denying Abortion Care

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) led a press conference with House Democratic Leadership to mark the fourth anniversary of the devastating Supreme Court Dobbs decision and offer her vision of seeing true reproductive justice realized and essential reproductive healthcare protected and expanded. In her remarks, Rep. Pressley made plain how Republicans’ denial of life-saving abortion care has stolen the lives of many women and left their families traumatized.

A transcript of the Congresswoman’s remarks is available below and the video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley Makes Plain the Traumatic, Generational Harm of Republicans’ Denying Abortion Care, Offers Vision for True Reproductive Justice

U.S. Capitol

June 24, 2026

I will not be brief, but I will be blunt, because the harm that is happening in this country is very blunt.

And when I consider the fact that I have been in Congress for eight years and was elected in the 116th Congress to, at that time what was characterized as the first pro-choice majority Congress in the history of Congress, and we worked hard to make that more than a talking point.

It’s my great honor to co-chair the Reproductive Freedom Caucus alongside Diana DeGette, and I’ll underscore that, because everything that’s happening right now was outlined in Project 2025 and this authoritarian regime that means to march us towards a nation of forced birth.

This is an anti-freedom agenda.

When they attack the free press, they degrade free speech.

They want to control the books we read, and they want to control what we do with our very bodies.

It is an anti-freedom agenda, and this is a somber moment.

Today, I come before you with a heavy heart, because I fear that America has normalized women bleeding out in parking lots denied basic health care.

Today I come before you with a heavy heart, because I fear that in America the suffering of women has become background noise.

Tell me how this is possible when the preventable death of a loved one is a kind of heartbreak that defies words, a permanent heartbreak that crushes dreams and is felt across generations.

In our home, I have an ancestor wall, and on that wall is my paternal grandmother, a woman I never had the privilege of meeting and knowing.

My grandmother Carrie, my father’s mother, died in childbirth in the 1950s. It impacted the trajectory of my father’s entire life, and that of his five siblings.

And yet still in America today, the statistical odds of a Black woman’s safe passage through childbirth remain much the same as the days of my Grandma Carrie.

And the White House refuses to name the Black maternal health crisis, because in fact they don’t even want to name—-they want to erase the word Black in their attack on DEI.

They want to erase the word, and they want to erase Black people.

But you can’t. I’ll go on.

Today in South Texas, a warehouse of pregnant children are being held—children, we don’t even know how they got pregnant. Today in South Texas, a warehouse of pregnant children are being held, imprisoned by this administration.

One more demonstration of their child abuse, child negligence, and a generation of childhood trauma that they seek to advance and exact every day.

These children are being denied abortion care and prenatal care alike, terrified 13- and 14-year-old girls, their bodies claimed by the state as property.

Today across America, in this country, women are forced by the government to carry dead fetuses inside their body until their health begins to fail because callous Republicans choke on scripture while they pass legislation that is both sloppy and fatal, and nothing Christian about it, denying women the right to essential abortion care.

Let me be clear, abortion care is essential healthcare.

I come before you today to offer a stark and damning picture, not to dissuade us from the work ahead, but to call us to action.

I speak with precision and bluntness, because that is the only way forward.

We have to stand in the gap and work with partners at every level of government to protect and expand access to care.

We must stand unified behind robust Democratic legislation that will not only codify the right to abortion care, but expand access to abortion care, protect access to birth control and IVF, save the lives of black birthing mamas, and more.

We must center and trust the women who have led local mutual aid efforts since the beginning of time, working with limited resources and deep personal sacrifices to get their neighbors, aunties, and daughters the care they need.

We’ve always done it.

Imagine an America where we speak plainly about pregnancy outcomes.

Imagine an America where every person can get the essential abortion care they need.

Imagine an America where birthing mothers are loved, supported, and celebrated.

Imagine an America where every child has a childhood.

Imagine an America where no family struggles to afford formula or diapers.

Imagine an America where everyone is truly free.

But we have to do more than imagine it. We have to work to make it so.

My colleagues and I will continue to agitate, litigate, legislate, organize, and mobilize.

Today, I’m thinking of every family that has shared their abortion story with me. I’m thinking about my mother. I’m thinking about my grandmother, who I never met. I’m thinking about our 17-year-old daughter, Cora, and the aspirations that we have for her to live a life defined by freedom and liberation.

The struggle for abortion justice is fundamental, and I promise you that every single day, I’ll continue to fight, Democrats will continue to fight, until every person who calls this country home has access to the care that they demand and deserve.

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Congresswoman Pressley joined impacted individuals and abortion storytellers last night to initiate a powerful day of action, offering a message of resilient community support and a commitment to ensure abortion care is treated as the fundamental human right it is. Video is available here.

In her time serving in Congress, Rep. Pressley has fought persistently to protect and advance reproductive justice and ensure fundamental life-saving reproductive health care for all.

• On the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Rep. Pressley introduced the Abortion Justice Act, sweeping, intersectional legislation to address access to abortion care and put forth a comprehensive vision of a just America where abortion care is readily available—without stigma, shame or systemic barriers—for all who seek it, regardless of zip code, immigration status, income, or background.
• Rep. Pressley is a lead co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), bicameral federal legislation to guarantee equal access to abortion care, everywhere. 
• Rep. Pressley is also a lead co-sponsor of the EACH Act, bold legislation to repeal the Hyde Amendment and help guarantee abortion coverage—regardless of how a patient gets their health insurance.
• Shortly before the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Rep. Pressley led a group of her Black women colleagues in writing to President Biden urging him to declare a public health emergency amid the unprecedented threats to abortion rights nationwide.
• Rep. Pressley condemned the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade., and implored the Senate to protect abortion rights and slammed the white supremacist roots of anti-abortion efforts.
• Rep. Pressley has been outspoken in demanding justice for Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old pregnant mother who was declared brain dead in February and was forced to remain on life support due to Georgia’s abortion ban. In June 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered an impassioned floor speech in which she underscored that Adriana’s case is far too common in the unjust history of denying Black women their dignity, humanity, and right to bodily autonomy – and that GOP abortion bans such as Georgia’s deepen this pain and bar critical healthcare freedom. Rep. Pressley issued a statement after Adriana’s infant son Chance was delivered via emergency Cesarean section and Adriana was taken off life support.
• In May 2026, Pressley and her colleagues led 250 House and Senate Democrats in filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court urging them to overturn a Fifth Circuit decision that would upend the FDA approval process and restrict access to mifepristone.
• On August 18, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement applauding the passage of the updated Shield Act in Massachusetts, signed into law by Governor Maura Healey this month. The expanded Shield Act strengthens legal protections for people seeking reproductive and gender-affirming care in Massachusetts.
• On July 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the final passage of Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill that will rip healthcare and food assistance away from millions of people, including in Massachusetts, push reproductive healthcare further out of reach nationwide, and fuel Trump’s unlawful mass deportation agenda.
• On July 1, 2025, Rep. Pressley filed an amendment to Republicans’ Big, Ugly Bill to protect and expand reproductive healthcare.
• On June 26, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the harmful Medina v. Planned Parenthood ruling, the Supreme Court’s decision to allow South Carolina to bar Medicaid patients from receiving healthcare services at Planned Parenthood.
• On June 24, 2025, Rep. Pressley joined House Democratic Leadership for a press conference to mark the somber anniversary and renew her calls for comprehensive legislation to protect abortion care and expand access to reproductive healthcare.
• On June 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley and the women of the Massachusetts delegation, Whip Katherine Clark (MA-05), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Rep. Lori Trahan (MA-03) joined Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts President Dominique Lee for a press conference in solidarity with Planned Parenthood as they collectively fight to stop Republicans’ latest attack on reproductive freedom in the GOP’s Big, Ugly Bill.
• In June 2025, Rep. Pressley demanded justice for Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old pregnant mother who was declared brain dead in February and was forced to remain on life support due to Georgia’s abortion ban.
• On May 29, 2025, Rep. Pressley reintroduced a resolution demanding equitable access to reproductive and sexual healthcare for people with disabilities, and designating a day in May as “Disability Reproductive Equity Day.”
• On May 21, 2025, Rep. Pressley delivered a powerful speech on the House Floor in which she slammed Republicans’ reconciliation bill that would slash Medicaid, which is necessary to ensuring safe, healthy reproductive care and maternal health nationwide.
• On April 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley, alongside Reps. DeGette, Chu, Leger Fernández, Fletcher, Davids, Williams, sent a letter signed by 162 Members urging Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore all appropriated funding for Title X providers and coordinate an urgent meeting on the matter.
• On April 2, 2025, Rep. Pressley rallied with Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), colleagues, and advocates outside the U.S. Supreme Court for Medicaid patients’ ability to access routine care at Planned Parenthood health centers.
• On March 5, 2025, Rep. Pressley and the Reproductive Freedom Caucus issued a statement condemning Donald Trump’s plans to drop the U.S. government’s case against Idaho’s violation of Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) protections for emergency abortion care.
• In January 2025, Rep. Pressley gave an impassioned speech condemning H.R. 21, Republicans’ cruel anti-abortion bill that criminalizes providers and denies families care.
• In January 2025, Rep. Pressley was announced as Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus for the 119^th Congress.
• In October 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on Josseli Barnica, who died on Sept. 3, 2021 after being denied emergency abortion care in Texas as she suffered a miscarriage.
• In September 2024, in a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee Hearing, Rep. Pressley highlighted the harmful and deadly impact of abortion bans in America to date, and outlined in detail the shameful circumstances under which Amber Nicole Thurman died after being denied necessary abortion care in Georgia.
• In May 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on a Louisiana bill that would classify medication abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances. 
• In April 2024, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley played “Fact or Fiction” with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf to emphasize the safety and efficacy of medication abortion drug mifepristone.
• Shortly before the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Rep. Pressley led a group of her Black women colleagues in writing to President Biden urging him to declare a public health emergency amid the unprecedented threats to abortion rights nationwide. 
• Rep. Pressley condemned the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade., and implored the Senate to protect abortion rights and slammed the white supremacist roots of anti-abortion efforts.
• In August 2023, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the Fifth Circuit Court decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.
• In July 2023, Rep. Pressley, alongside Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Rep. Cori Bush (MO-01), and Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), reintroduced the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act, legislation to help people with disabilities—who face discrimination and extra barriers when seeking care—get better access to reproductive health care and the informed care they need to control their own reproductive lives.
• In July 2023, Rep. Pressley applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of over-the-counter birth control.
• In May 2023, Rep. Pressley applauded the FDA Advisory Committee’s unanimous, 17-0 vote to recommend the approval of the first-ever application for over-the-counter birth control. She and Senator Murray also held a press conference applauding the decision and urging the FDA to approval over-the-counter birth control without delay.
• In May 2023, Rep. Pressley, along with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Ami Bera, MD (CA-06) and Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), reintroduced their bicameral Affordability is Access Act to ensure that once the FDA determines an over-the-counter birth control option to be safe, insurers fully cover over-the-counter birth control without any fees or out-of-pocket costs.
• In April 2023, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Texas court ruling on mifepristone, and discussed the Texas case in a recent floor speech in which she affirmed medication abortion as routine medical care and access to mifepristone as essential. She later joined Governor Maura Healey, Senator Elizabth Warren (D-MA), and local leaders in announcing action to protect Mifepristone in Massachusetts.
• In March 2023, Rep. Pressley, along with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Reps. Schakowsky, Lee, DeGette, Torres and Strickland, reintroduced the Abortion is Healthcare Everywhere Act harmful and discriminatory Helms Amendment and expand abortion access globally.
• In March 2023, Rep. Pressley and Senator Hirono led their colleagues in reintroducing a bicameral congressional resolution honoring abortion providers and clinic staff. 
• In March 2023, Rep. Pressley delivered a speech in which she discussed the pending court case in Texas, which aims to restrict access to medication abortion across the entire nation. In her remarks, Rep. Pressley affirmed medication abortion as routine medical care, and accessibility to the abortion pill mifepristone as essential.
• In September 2021, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning the Supreme Court’s inaction on SB-8, Texas’ restrictive abortion law. Later that month, she participated in a House Oversight Committee hearing to examine the threat posed by abortion bans and underscored the urgency of the Senate passing the Women’s Health Protection Act. 
• In April 2021, Rep. Pressley, along with Congresswomen Barbara Lee (CA-13), Diana DeGette (CO-01) and Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), led a group of 131 Democratic members in reintroducing the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act or the EACH Act, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment and ensure that all people, regardless of income, insurance or zip code, can make personal reproductive health care decisions without interference from politicians. She re-Introduced the legislation In January 2023.
• Rep. Pressley has led calls in Congress for the FDA to remove medically unnecessary restrictions on the medication abortion drug mifepristone, and applauded the FDA’s action in January 2023 to allow retail pharmacies to dispense abortion medication pills.
• As Chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus’s Abortion Rights and Access Task Force, Congresswoman Pressley led the fight to repeal the Hyde Amendments from annual Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bills and in July 2020 published a Medium post on the importance of doing so. She applauded the removal of the Hyde Amendment in President Biden’s FY2022 budget.
• In May 2020, she led more than 155 Members of Congress in calling on House Democratic leadership to ensure that any future COVID-19 relief packages rejected Republican efforts to use the public health crisis to diminish abortion access.
• In August 2021, Rep. Pressley, Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, and Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Diana DeGette and Barbara Lee led more than 70 of their House Democratic colleagues in introducing a resolution in support of equitable, science-based policies governing access to medication abortion care. 
• In January 2023, Rep. Pressley introduced a resolution to condemn all forms of political violence in the U.S., regardless of its target or intent. That same day, she delivered a powerful speech on the House floor slamming Republicans’ harmful, misleading anti-abortion resolution.
• In September 2022, Rep. Pressley hosted U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra at the Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester for a convening on their work to address the Black maternal health crisis and the criminalization of abortion care in states across the nation following the harmful U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. 
• In May 2019, she led more than 100 colleagues in introducing H.Con.Res.40, a resolution reaffirming the House of Representative’s support for Roe v. Wade.
• In June 2019, Rep. Pressley introduced H.R. 3296, the Affordability is Access Act, to make oral contraception available without a prescription. 
• In September 2016, as a member of the Boston City Council, Pressley championed a resolution calling on Congress and President Obama to repeal the Hyde Amendment and reinstate insurance coverage for abortion services.

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