“I want my daughter and all of our children to grow up in a world where they are limitless. Where they have every right and freedom that we grew up with and more. Where they get the healthcare they need, and where they can survive a pregnancy if they choose to become parents.”

“I affirm and believe deep in my bones that these harmful bans and this unjust status quo are not an inevitability, and they are not where this story ends. A more just America is possible.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – On the third anniversary of the devastating Dobbs decision, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, 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.

In the three years since Dobbs, Republicans at every level of government have advanced cruel abortion bans and other policies that have criminalized patients, providers, and prescribers, denied care to those in need, and robbed many of their lives.

A transcript of Congresswoman Pressley’s remarks at the press conference is available below and the video is available here.

Transcript: On Third Anniversary of Dobbs, Pressley, Democrats Continue Fight for Reproductive Justice, Condemn GOP Attacks on Bodily Autonomy
U.S. House of Representatives
June 24, 2025

Good afternoon. Thank you to my esteemed colleagues and all of our partners in good. Thank you to the movement.

This is really a somber day. This attack on bodily autonomy, on healthcare was really the first domino to fall, the first attack in this extremist march towards an abortion ban. And what is that really? A nation of forced birth.

A nation of forced birth while Republicans seek to deny Medicaid and healthcare when 40% of births are covered through Medicaid.

A nation of forced birth when there is already a Black maternal morbidity crisis.

My grandmother, my father’s mother, died in the 1950’s giving birth to my father’s youngest brother. And in 2025, we still see that Black women are still 3 to 4 times more likely to die in childbirth or post-birthing complications.

A nation of forced birth without universal childcare or paid leave.

An administration that is hostile towards the women of this country and working actively to degrade Head Start.

A nation of forced birth.

Three years ago, I was in the bleachers at our daughter’s 8th grade graduation, filled with immense pride and hope that this milestone that she had achieved.

And while at that graduation learned in real time that Roe had been struck down. And I was immediately filled with dread and a heaviness, sobered by the fact that my daughter would be going to sleep with fewer rights than she woke up with that morning.

In the three years since, we have heard horrific testimony in this climate of the criminalization of patients, providers, and prescribers, and their loved ones who have been denied care, denied their dignity, and even robbed of their lives.

Reproductive freedom, abortion care, health care – this is an issue of consequence to millions in this country. Many have been directly impacted, lives have been lost, and more will continue to be.

Amber Thurman was a 28-year-old mother and a medical assistant. She sought medical care out of state due to an abortion ban. And when she needed follow up care, she was turned away. A D&C, a standard medical procedure was discussed and deferred. Amber died on a hospital gurney leaving behind her 5-year-old son.

Adriana Smith was a 30-year-old mom to a vibrant six-year-old and nurse at Emory Hospital. She was sent home from the hospital without the care she needed. She woke up gasping for air, arrived at the hospital and shortly thereafter was declared brain dead. The blood clots the doctors had missed had claimed her life.

To be a Black woman in America navigating our health care system so often means to have your pain dismissed, delegitimized, denied, to be gaslit by the health care system.

Not only was Adriana’s pain dismissed and her son robbed of his mother, but all of this is because of an extreme abortion ban in Georgia, the hospital stated that they could not take her off of life support.

And because she was nine weeks pregnant when she was declared brain dead, about a month past a missed period, the hospital would not allow Adriana’s family to make sensitive end-of-life medical decisions for her. And the hospital made her body an incubator.

This week, baby Chance posthumously came into this world via emergency C section and remains in the NICU. Adriana’s family was finally able to lay her to rest and pick up the pieces as they navigate their deep grief.

These stories are chilling, and you’ll hear many more of them as there are abortion storytellers making their way through our offices and the corridors of Congress this week.

These stories are uncomfortable, challenging all of us to sit in the discomfort so that we never grow complacent or wane in this fight.

My daughter asked me three years ago why do you always say, “When we fight, we win?” And I told her because it’s true. And I will not be a liar to my kid.

There are those who aim to rob families across this country of essential abortion care in their home communities and they’re complicit in this harm.

They are using every tool – the courts, executive actions, and legislation – from state houses to Congress, and notably through this Big Ugly Bill as it makes it way through the Senate as we speak.

The cruelty is the point.

At this point, Republicans can’t deny that they are actually in the business of making people across America sicker, poorer and more vulnerable.

Today, Democrats stand before the American people reaffirming our commitment. I’m so grateful of this steadfast commitment of our leadership.

We will use every tool we have to fight for your healthcare. Abortion care is essential healthcare.

From local mutual aid efforts to fighting like hell in the courts and in the halls of Congress, we won’t cede anything. Because lives depend on it and your families deserve it.

No one should come between a family and their medical providers.

As I close, three years later, today our daughter in a couple days turning 17. She reminds us by the hour.

And as we’re looking at colleges, one key factor that has shaped her decision is her ability to access healthcare. Shamefully, that is now a part of our calculus.

I want my daughter and all of our children to grow up in a world where they are limitless.

Where they have every right and freedom that we grew up with and more.

Where they get the healthcare they need, and where they can survive a pregnancy if they choose to become parents.

And that is why I affirm and believe deep in my bones that these harmful bans and this unjust status quo are not an inevitability, and they are not where this story ends.

A more just America is possible. And we remain strident in our advocacy that everyone receives the care and dignity they deserve.

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