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Kirsten Gillibrand

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) speaks during a May 5, 2022 press conference in the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Gillibrand Goes Off: 'I Don't Think a Man in America Could Actually Imagine Not Having Control of His Body'

"I hope every human being in this country understands that when you take away a woman's right to make her decisions about her health and well-being, she is no longer a full citizen."

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Thursday delivered an impassioned appeal to men who might oppose reproductive rights and a barbed blow to the five right-wing Supreme Court justices who she said lied about their jurisprudential stance on Roe v. Wade.

"It is an outrage that we have five justices on the Supreme Court who lied."

"I would like to speak to America's men for one minute," Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said during a press conference on the Senate's effort to codify reproductive rights via the Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA). "Imagine you do not have authority over your own body for 10 months."

"I don't think a man in America could actually imagine not having control of his body, his bodily functions, what happens to him, and what life would be like for 10 months," she added.

Taking aim at the five conservative high court justices who, according to a leaked draft opinion, are set to overturn Roe, Gillibrand said that "it is an outrage that we have five justices on the Supreme Court who lied--lied--at their confirmation hearings in order to be confirmed."

"It is an outrage in America today that our judicial system is so corrupted, so politicized, and no longer representative of the will of the people," she fumed. "Five justices said they respect precedent. Five said that Roe v. Wade was established precedent. Five said that they would never undermine established precedent."

"It is barbaric, it is inhumane, it is unacceptable," Gillibrand said of Roe's likely reversal, "and I hope every human being in this country understands that when you take away a woman's right to make her decisions about her health and well-being, she is no longer a full citizen. She no longer has freedom, she no longer has bodily autonomy, she no longer has basic civil rights or civil liberties. That is what this decision would do in America today."

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Gillibrand has called upon her colleagues to repeal the filibuster so that Senate Democrats can pass the House-approved WHPA.

"We must pass federal laws to protect the right to safe, legal abortion," she tweeted last September. "We must pass the Women's Health Protection Act to put an end to these cruel state bans on our rights. And we can't let the filibuster stand in our way."

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