ICYMI: McClellan Delivers Floor Speech on the 51st Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it: Last week, Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) gave a speech on the House Floor, commemorating the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade and calling for immediate action to restore Americans’ reproductive freedom. 

Watch McClellan’s speech here or below. 

Read a transcript of McClellan’s remarks below: 

Mister Speaker, I rise today ahead of 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade to urge my colleagues to take action to protect reproductive freedom, which has been under assault since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. 

I was one month old when the Roe decision came down. And I had the peace of mind when I entered my childbearing years that any decision on when to become a mother would be mine, and that any pregnancy-related decisions I had to make would be between me, my partner, and my medical provider. 

Thirteen years ago, I became the first member of the Virginia House of Delegates to become pregnant while in office. As a Black woman in a nation grappling with a maternal and infant health crisis, I researched everything that could go right, and everything that could go wrong. 

And my conversations with my OB opened my eyes to the impact abortion restrictions can have on pregnancy-management decisions. And my doctor shared stories… stories like Suzie, a married 30-something with a hole in her heart, on birth control, who got pregnant anyway. Or Beth, a pregnant woman who developed cancer. Each faced the heartbreaking choice whether to terminate the pregnancy or sacrifice her life.

There was Mary, who underwent fertility treatments to have a child and got pregnant with octuplets. The odds of carrying the pregnancy to term were very low. But if she reduced the pregnancy to two, the odds were better than 50/50 that both would survive.

There was Amy, who suffered an incomplete or missed miscarriage, in which the fetus dies but remains in the uterus, and a medical procedure – an abortion – is required to remove the fetus and avoid infection, sepsis, and death. 

There was Robin, whose fetus developed the most severe form of spina bifida with horrific deformities. Her doctor suspected that the baby was already paralyzed from the waist down, and that the paralysis would spread as he grew. He was not expected to survive.

I heard story after story, and I thought about how abortion restrictions that I saw proposed then in Virginia - and across the country - would have taken away decisions on the best course of treatment for those patients.

In today’s post-Dobbs world, we are witnessing the devastating impacts of restrictive abortion laws on mothers and families across the United States right now. This anniversary of Roe is an important reminder that we must continue fighting to ensure every American has access to comprehensive reproductive health care and that we do not insert the judgment of politicians in state legislatures or here in Washington for the health care providers and patients’ judgment.  

During my second pregnancy, I had placenta previa. I was aware of the risks associated with it. That didn’t stop me from being terrified when nine weeks before my due date, my placenta ruptured. I was rushed to the hospital and had an emergency C-section. Both my daughter and I nearly died. It was one of the scariest days of my life.

But I had peace of mind that my doctor, in that moment, could make the decision she felt best to provide the treatment necessary based on the standard of care, without fear of punishment from politicians in things went wrong. Thankfully, that delivery was successful, and many of you have come to know my daughter Samantha as a thriving, precocious, healthy little girl.  

But when she reaches childbearing years, will she have fewer rights than I did when I gave birth to her? That very thought makes me furious. It makes me livid that I am the first member of my family to lose a constitutional right in my lifetime. 

And that reality has motivated me more than ever to protect reproductive freedom, just as I did as a state legislator, passing legislation that makes Virginia the only state in the South without a ban or abortion restrictions post-Dobbs. I will continue to fight for the reproductive freedom for patients and providers to make the choice they believe is best given their necessary circumstances, without interference from Washington or state legislators. 

Thank you, Mister Speaker, and I yield back.