Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FLETCHER. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 6192, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act.

With everything going on in our world and in our country today, I, like Leader Jeffries, am disappointed that the precious time we have on this House floor to move legislation is dedicated to unnecessary, unhelpful, and unasked-for bills about home appliances.

Rights for refrigerators, liberty for laundry, dignity for dishwashers--how about instead we turn our attention to the rights, liberty, and dignity of women in America?

In my home State of Texas and across the country, women's rights to make their own decisions about their bodies, their families, and their futures are being stripped away by State legislatures and local governments. Why is it that this majority does nothing for them?

For example, as States ban abortion and limit access to reproductive healthcare, more and more Americans have been forced to travel, sometimes long distances and oftentimes to other States, to get the reproductive healthcare that they need.

In response to the exercise of this constitutional right to travel, one of the chief privileges and immunities for citizens in the Constitution, lawmakers are trying to take away this right, too.

Multiple cities in Texas have enacted ordinances to prohibit anyone from traveling on their roads or through their towns if the purpose is to get somewhere else to get an abortion.

In Alabama, the attorney general wants to prosecute groups that help women obtain abortions out of State.

Just last week, a man in Texas took legal action to investigate his former partner who had traveled to a State where abortion is legal.

These things are happening in the United States today, as we sit here today. This unconstitutional interference with our rights and our liberty and our dignity is what this body should be considering. That is what this body should be concerned about.

For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. If House rules permitted, I would have offered the motion with an important amendment to this bill.

My amendment would strike the current bill text and replace it with the text of my bill, H.R. 782, the Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act. This amendment reaffirms the fundamental constitutional right to travel across State lines for the purpose of obtaining reproductive healthcare as well as for healthcare providers providing care to out-of-State residents and those assisting people traveling for this purpose.

Mr. Chair, I include in the Record the text of my amendment.

Mrs. Fletcher moves to recommit the bill H.R. 6192 to the Committee on Energy and Commerce with instructions to report the same back to the House forthwith, with the following amendment:

Strike sections 1 through 3 and insert the following: SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Ensuring Women's Right to Reproductive Freedom Act''. SEC. 2. INTERFERENCE WITH INTERSTATE ABORTION SERVICES PROHIBITED.

(a) Interference Prohibited.--No person acting under color of State law, including any person who, by operation of a provision of State law, is permitted to implement or enforce State law, may prevent, restrict, or impede, or retaliate against, in any manner--

(1) a health care provider's ability to provide, initiate, or otherwise enable an abortion service that is lawful in the State in which the service is to be provided to a patient who does not reside in that State;

(2) any person or entity's ability to assist a health care provider to provide, initiate, or otherwise enable an abortion service that is lawful in the State in which the service is to be provided to a patient who does not reside in that State, if such assistance does not violate the law of that State;

(3) any person's ability to travel across a State line for the purpose of obtaining an abortion service that is lawful in the State in which the service is to be provided;

(4) any person's or entity's ability to assist another person traveling across a State line for the purpose of obtaining an abortion service that is lawful in the State in which the service is to be provided; or

(5) the movement in interstate commerce, in accordance with Federal law or regulation, of any drug approved or licensed by the Food and Drug Administration for the termination of a pregnancy.

(b) Enforcement by Attorney General.--The Attorney General may bring a civil action in the appropriate United States district court against any person who violates subsection (a) for declaratory and injunctive relief.

(c) Private Right of Action.--Any person who is harmed by a violation of subsection (a) may bring a civil action in the appropriate United States district court against the person who violated such subsection for declaratory and injunctive relief, and for such compensatory damages as the court determines appropriate, including for economic losses and for emotional pain and suffering. The court may, in addition, award reasonable attorney's fees and costs of the action to a prevailing plaintiff.

(d) Definitions.--In this section:

(1) The term ``abortion service'' means--

(A) an abortion, including the use of any drug approved or licensed by the Food and Drug Administration for the termination of a pregnancy; and

(B) any health care service related to or provided in conjunction with an abortion (whether or not provided at the same time or on the same day as the abortion).

(2) The term ``health care provider'' means any entity or individual (including any physician, certified nurse-midwife, nurse practitioner, physician's assistant, or pharmacist) that is--

(A) engaged or seeks to engage in the delivery of health care services, including abortion services; and

(B) licensed or certified to perform such service under applicable State law.

(3) The term ``drug'' has the meaning given such term in section 201 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 321).

(4) The term ``State'' includes the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, each Indian tribe, and each territory or possession of the United States.

(e) Severability.--If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision to any person, entity, government, or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, or the application of such provision to all other persons, entities, governments, or circumstances, shall not be affected thereby.

(f) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit the fundamental right to travel within the United States, including the District of Columbia, Tribal lands, and the territories of the United States, nor to limit any existing enforcement authority of the Attorney General or any existing remedies available to address a violation of such right.

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Mrs. FLETCHER. Mr. Chair, I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for the motion to recommit.

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Mrs. FLETCHER. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

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Mrs. FLETCHER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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