Sen. Tina Smith: If You Don’t Have Control Over Your Reproductive Life, You Don’t Have Control Over Any Aspect of Your Life

EXCERPT:

SMITH: "Well, I serve on the Banking Housing Committee and was there when Secretary Yellen made those comments. She was expressing what I believe almost every woman knows. If you don’t have control over your reproductive life, you don’t have control over any aspect of your life, including your economic opportunity, your opportunity to provide for your children and the rest of your family. That’s why abortion is a fundamental freedom. It’s the fundamental opportunity -- it’s fundamentally about autonomy. So I think that this new argument that is coming out of the Senate Republicans, which seemed to suggest that women have to choose between addressing economic opportunity on the one hand or having this fundamental freedom over their -- and control over their own bodies on the other hand just shows how out of step they are. Women and people don’t actually think about their lives in those terms. They’re not all siloed off like that. Of course these two things go hand in hand, and it is one of the reasons why I think we are going to be holding this vote tomorrow to really dramatize what’s happening here and what Republicans think, who Republicans think ought to have the power over this most personal of decisions."