Transcript of Pelosi Remarks at Roundtable on Women’s Reproductive Health

San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Congresswoman Jackie Speier and local women's health leaders at the University of California San Francisco Mission Bay Campus, for a Women's Health Day of Action and Women's Equality Day reproductive health roundtable discussion. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. Good morning, everyone. Happy Women's Equality Day.

[Applause]

A day where we're here to about women's freedom. Women's freedom to vote, as the amendment to the Constitution provided, women's freedom to make their own decisions, their healthcare decisions, and that will be part of our discussion today.

I appreciate the nice welcome from Chancellor Hawgood. He is such a star in our community, and it's always a joy to see his vision as to what comes next here. And we're very happy to see each and every one of you. You'll be hearing from a number of our special guests here. I'm very honored to be representing San Francisco, along with Jackie Speier, the two of us here, the representation of this great city, this great community. And sometimes we share representation of UCSF.

[Laughter]

Just depending on where we are at the time. But it is – Jackie is Co-Chair of the Women's Caucus, a key Member of the Pro-Choice Caucus. Well, I'll be introducing her in a moment, but we are just honored that she's with us today.

We take pride in California's leadership on reproductive health, as I mentioned. A beacon of hope and refuge in a time of widespread fear. Emboldened by the radical Supreme Court, extreme MAGA Republicans are inflicting unimaginable pain on women and their families.

In Florida, told – a judge told a 16-year-old girl she was too immature for an abortion, yet mature enough to become a mother. In Texas, doctors now face life in prison for providing care to their patients. For doing their jobs. So sad. Indeed, today, American women are not as free as their mothers and their grandmothers were. My daughter Christine is here and our – my granddaughter who is thirteen – well she has a banner. Where are you with your banner? Women's equality banner?

[Applause]

But her daughter, Bella, is thirteen and she will not have the same rights as her mom and her grandmother. Indeed, American women have just – let me just put it this way – America's women will save America's Democracy. Because they have hit home –

[Applause]

So, in any case, you know what's happening across the country. There's a battle being waged, a crusade of punishment and control. It's funny, they don't like birth control but they want to control women's lives. Again, we've done – had legislation to make contraception accessible to women. We got [eight] votes from the Republicans on that, that meant over 200 voted no – the right to travel, for women to seek their reproductive rights.

And again, we want to put People Over Politics in all of this. So again, we've passed Roe v. Wade to be enshrined into our Constitution, establish, again, the federal right to birth control, reaffirm freedom to travel and we have more to do. And even other aspects of reproductive freedom in terms of LGBTQ marriage equality and the rest.

We just are not going back. That's just the way it is. They have to know that we're not going back.

Now, I have spent a great deal of time on this, because it is the current manifestation of freedom for women. That the women, the suffragists fought so hard for. They fought so hard for it. And people – when women got the right to vote, this headline said ‘Women Given the Right to Vote.' Well, we know that was not the case. Women were not given the right to vote. Women fought for it, struggled for it, took a long time. And now we have to fight for other aspects of that freedom.

So now, it's my privilege, and I have actually jumped ahead of him, to yield to the distinguished Chancellor of UCSF. As I said earlier, he is a hero in our community, with a big vision for inclusion and diversity and science and innovation, and in so many ways. We're honored that you welcomed us this morning, and now I yield for you to welcome us further, Chancellor.

***

Thank you very much, Jackie. I want to thank our very special guests for their presentations. Shannon, Dr. Drey. Asmara, thank you for sharing your personal story. To Ushma, thank you, and also to Gilda. Is Gilda – yes, Gilda is still with us. Thank you, Gilda. You gave us great guidance.

But one word that pervade through all of the discussion was the word ‘justice.' The fact that this is such an assault on women of color and women – lower income families is just sinful. It's sinful. It's wrong that they would be able to say to women what they think women should be doing with their lives and their bodies. But it's sinful, the injustice of it all. So thank you for making that central. And you did too, Dr. Upadhyay. Thank you so much for making that so important.

California, California. How fantastic is our state? Thank you, Governor Newsom and our state legislature. An initiative is going to be on the ballot, and thank you to our legislators for that. Judy Chu is our leader on all of this. The day after Texas did what they did in September, Judy's bill was ready to go to the Floor to enshrine Roe v. Wade. So I want to – I just want to acknowledge that. Listening to some of what you said, I think you'll be encouraged with Black maternal mortality initiatives. Alma Adams and others have been just relentless on – so there are many things happening in the Congress. But much more of it would be done if we just win two more Senators in November so that we can pass them in the United States Senate.

[Applause]

One of the things that is always horrible to me is how they could prevent women from having a future child by how they disregard her health needs at any given time. And what does it mean also to her other children that she may already have? So we have – we have in our infrastructure bill the telehealth expansion, which is helpful in terms of reaching many more people.

Just so you know, today is a Day of Action throughout the country because it's Women's Equality Day. But we are focusing on women's freedom. And just to say this: we are concerned about women's kitchen table issues. How they pay the bills, food, school, whatever it is. And now Republicans have made freedom, democracy a kitchen table issue for women, because it is a decision that has cost both in terms of health, in terms of opportunity for other children, and also in terms of dollar amounts. So this Day of Action, again, is about women, women saving our Democracy. That's what is happening. Women saving our Democracy.

And I'll just say this: yesterday, I was at something in Los Angeles and a mom told me that – listening to all of this going on – her three-year-old daughter – the mother said something about, one time, she would go to bed, and she said, ‘Mom, nobody should tell girls what to do with their bodies.'

[Laughter]

Three years old. So it's coming through. It's coming through. A whole other generation. Hopefully the boys, little boys are hearing that as well. But this is – we have our, shall we say, areas of disagreement, even our own state that we have to – that we have to deal with, but not to impair the leadership that our state is taking. And we're proud of that. I'm proud of the House Democrats, for the leadership they have provided, right across the board with our pro-choice Majority in the Congress. But they're – again, some more legislation that is necessary. And your prioritizing has been very important to us.

It is not a coincidence that we're doing this, as Congresswoman Speier said, on Women's Equality Day. Women's Equality Day, women fighting and winning the right to vote. Vote for what? Vote for themselves, vote for freedom, vote for our Democracy, and now we have this fight. Let's just be clear: this is what we see every day. Republicans want to ban abortions in the country. And if they took the leadership in the Congress, they would make it a national ban on abortion.

Justice Clarence Thomas, Clarence Thomas, made it very clear too, this isn't all that is there. It's about marriage equality. It's about a woman's right to choose, contraception, it's about other aspects of personal freedom. So, it's really important that we know that women turning out and electing pro-choice legislators, whether they're Democrats or Republicans. But the fact is, right now, they're Democrats. We would love this to be bipartisan. So far, we don't see that.

So, on this Day of Action, let us understand the assault that this is on women, women of color, women of – lower-income women. And it's an injustice, an injustice that we will not tolerate, and cannot stand. And sharing personal stories is the most eloquent, the most eloquent convincer. When we saved the Affordable Care, of – 10,000 events to tell the stories, tell the stories, that's – a heart-to-heart makes the difference.

So, on this equality – I'll just close by telling this story about women's equality. When I first became Leader in the Congress and I went to my first meeting at the White House as the Leader of the House Democrats, President Bush was President – very gracious, very hospitable, lovely. Lovely person. We don't agree on politics, but nonetheless, gracious.

So, I go in the room. I didn't care – I didn't worry about the – most of the meeting, because I've been to the White House many times – as Jackie has, as an Intelligence person, as somebody on the Armed Services Committee, and the rest. I was an appropriator, and Intelligence. I just thought it was like any other meeting, I would go to the White House.

But when I got there, it was a very small table: the President and four Leaders – House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans. And I realized that it was unlike any other meeting that had ever been held in the White House, because it was the first time a woman was at the table – not at the appointment of the President but as a representative of our party in the room. And the President understood that. He said this is going to be a different meeting – "We're going to hear some different things from Nancy, from her perspective." And, again, representing not only a very large number, a large number of women in our Caucus, but people of color, LGBTQ. I was different from the other people there because of who I represented.

Anyway, I sit down, and he's welcoming me and all that. And all of a sudden, I felt very closed in on my seat. Jackie's heard me tell the story many times. Closed in on my seat. It was – I never felt this before. I was closed in on my seat. And all of a sudden, I realized it was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, you name them, Sojourner Truth, Alice. All – everybody was on the seat with me. And I could hear them say: ‘At last, we have a seat at the table.'

And then they were gone. My first thought is, we want more. We want more. Because the more diversity, more inclusion that we have in any of the decision making, the better our policy will be, and the better we can fight these assaults. Hostility – this is not just a difference of – this is hostility to women. And on this Women's Equality Day, we'll fight back. Hostility.

With that, I want to thank you, doctor. Again, to Mr. Chancellor, for hosting us here today, and yield to you for the last word.