 We are delighted, Senator, for you to be here. I got to know Amy Klobuchar when I first went to Congress. And we went up to the Canadian US border, none of them. Senator Grassley. I do, I do. The next morning I went out running with Senator Dr. Grassley. You didn't have any running clothes, and he ran in his suit pants. I mean, that gave me a sense of, there's some informality in Iowa and in Minnesota. Yeah, exactly. That's amazing. But Senator Klobuchar is helping Democrats across the country. And she's in a position to do what she is an extraordinarily competent US senator and combines a kind of connection to everyday people and families and their needs and a real capacity to translate that into legislation that makes a difference. And Amy, it's just wonderful to have you here. And we're all grateful, especially at this time, when women's health and reproductive freedom is at stake. So I am going to stop there and turn it over for you to say hello. All right. Well, thank you, Peter. And I'm so excited to be here in Vermont. The sun's starting to come out, but I saw all the fall leaves. They're beautiful. Very similar to Minnesota. And also to be here with the next senator from the state of Vermont. And you have such a heritage. I, Patrick, we're doing a dinner for him tonight and get to give him an award for all of his incredible work. And thank you, Ann, for your leadership of the Vermont Democratic Party. And also, thank you, Joe, for all you've done in the state house and the leadership you're showing there, because Vermont is, again, on the front line. As always, I noted that we're excited to, I think Becca looks like she's going to take your place and be the next Congresswoman from Vermont. And we also are excited, by the way, about the voter participation in your state. You always have people that understand how important it is to be part of this democracy. Minnesota might best you for voter turnout, but that would be really inappropriate for me to say, as I'm sitting with the next senator. Impossibly wrong. Oh, no. But the point is, both of our states are always in the top 10 for voter turnout. And it's a really, really important part of our work. I also wanted to thank Dr. Harry Chen. Thank you, Treasurer, for the Liberty Ballot Committee and these former state health commissioner, and also Sydney Cardozo. Thank you so much for being here from the Lerner College of Medicine and medical students for choice. So we are here to talk about reproductive rights and what's been going on around the country. And what we have found, I think we maybe had sounded alarming alarm bells as well. I know I asked many of the Supreme Court nominees about this from my seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee along with Patrick about what they were going to do about Roe v. Wade. And history has shown a number of them were not truthful about their views of the case, although I will say Amy Coney Barrett said it wasn't super precedent. And then they acted in a way that I think no one expected, reversing nearly 50 years of precedent. The Dodd's decision basically has said to my daughter that she has less rights than her mom or than her grandma. And it has created a patchwork of laws across the country, especially in the middle of the country in Minnesota. We see this. We had actually, there was a GoFundMe page set up for a North Dakota abortion clinic that then had to move and move into Minnesota, which is a bit of an island for reproductive rights given what's happening in the States right around us. And so we see it right there where we have women coming in from other states right around us just to seek their health care. What this is in its core is about a women's ability to make her own choices about her health care. As Democrats, we believe that a woman should be able to make her own decisions about her health care and not have Ted Cruz sitting in the waiting room. We believe that this should be the decision of people and their doctors and not the decision of politicians. And I used to say that I thought the Supreme Court would take us back to the 50s. And honestly, I met the 1950s, but now I learned it's the 1850s, Peter. And in fact, it goes back before that because Alito has been known to cite treatises from the Middle Ages, time in which they banned pointy shoes. And on the contrary, we have someone in Peter who believes that we live in the modern day and that we stand up for people's rights. And that's why we must codify Roe v. Wade into law. And that is not gonna happen without electing Peter Walsh to the US Senate. And I mean that, it's one of those things this isn't like, oh, she's exaggerating. I'm not exaggerating because you can see how close the votes are. We have colleagues of mine in the US Senate that are actually putting forth abortion bans. We have the minority leader in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, who has said that he wants to enact an abortion ban. So that's what we have on the other side. And then we have people that are willing to codify Roe v. Wade as he has shown repeatedly in his votes very, very clearly. And also are willing to make exceptions or reform the filibuster, which is most likely the only direct route to get there. I also wanted to thank the state for what you were doing on the ballot in Vermont. The Vermont right to personal reproductive autonomy amendment. If it passes, it would add language to the Vermont Constitution, which states that an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy is centered to the liberty and dignity to determine one's own life course. And we asked Vermonters to support this amendment because actually every state should be using every tool it has. And the more we see momentum in states like this, it actually helps us no matter if they're blue or they're purple or they're red. So what's been happening nationally? Well, the writing is on the wall for where people are when it comes to reproductive rights. Kansas, over 500,000 people showed up to protect women's rights, more than actually voted in total in the last midterm election. So over 500,000 people voted on the side of reproductive rights, Harry, that was actually more than the total voters in the last midterm. There's an old book called What's the Matter with Kansas? And now we know the answer to that, nothing. Nothing is the matter with Kansas. They got it and they voted. You look at what happened in upstate New York, a swing district that went for Trump in 2016, close for Biden in 2020, yet a Democrat who made reproductive rights central to his campaign in a special election won. You look at what happened in Alaska. I just like what that said out there. Where a Democrat defeated Sarah Payland in the special election. She's the first Democrat to hold the seat in nearly a half century. That would be since 1973. So the American people are on our side on this issue time and time, the polls show it. And we want to have the codification of VUA be part of our legacy of progress. And we have not just been making history with Democrats and leadership, we've been making progress. And in the Senate, we've been doing it with a very large and crushing 50-50 majority. That was supposed to be a joke. Okay, so a 50-50 majority. And it is everything from passing the PAC DAC for our veterans so that they get help when they're stationed next to burn pits. Peter worked on this in the house, was really strong in this issue. Gun safety, when it comes to that bipartisan gun safety bill, the CHIPS Act. So we're finally making CHIPS in America again. We were at one point making 37% of semiconductor chips in the US, now it's down to 12%. The leadership that we have shown on Ukraine, which has been bipartisan, but the president's been taking the lead, the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes Peter and my provision to start the negotiations under Medicare, which Pharma had put a provision in for 20 years. And he led that bill in the house and I led that bill in the Senate. Now, it didn't get us everything we wanted in the compromise, but it was a very strong beginning. And then finally bringing down greenhouse gases by 40% by the year 2030. So I just thought I'd end with that moment where people sometimes get cynical and they think, do elections make a difference? Does it make a difference? It's gonna make a huge difference. And if we wanna continue this progress on issues like the freedom to make your own healthcare decisions, the freedom to vote, then we've gotta elect Peter Welch for the US Senate. And I'm looking forward to seeing him in that chamber. So thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, so I am thrilled to have Senator Klobuchar here. And I have to say that having a couple of folks who are strongly representing reproductive rights is so important for Vermont. We are on the cusp of passing a really important momentous bill that will be passed by the voters that will make a difference for women, not just here of Vermont, but for all women and people all over the country regarding reproductive rights. We understand that we're a model to codify this into our state constitution really makes a difference because we are one of the states that is very strongly pro-choice now and supports abortion rights and reproductive rights. But that could change. We've seen that change in state after state. And there are so many places now where women's rights to reproductive choice is limited and there are more limits coming. So it's absolutely incredibly important that we pass this. The Vermont Democratic Party is laser focused on this. We are supporting strong candidates up and down up to our soon to be Senator Peter Welch down to every candidate who is pro-choice. And I have to say having you lead that charge has been incredibly positive for us. We are just so glad to have someone who we know is leading the charge and has been speaking out for years on this issue. This is not a new issue for you by any means. Supporting reproductive rights and making sure that we have choice and protecting privacy have been high priorities for you forever and we'll be going forward. And we're just thrilled to have someone like Amy Klobuchar sitting beside you who has been doing the same thing for years in Minnesota too. So I just wanna say that we are focused on Article 22 also known as Prop 5. And it's very important that we have this round table. We have the right people around the table here. And with that I'm going to hand it back to you. Yeah, well I actually had a question I was thinking as you talked about the importance of Prop 5 but to ask Peter, because understanding this state and also of course your leadership in Washington. So if Prop 5 passes, which I bet it will, if Prop 5 passes, but what if the Republicans take over the Senate and the House and what would happen if they passed an abortion ban? And how did that work with Prop 5? We lose, women would lose. The national abortion ban would take effect and overrule what we do here in the state of Vermont. So we know that and that's why we know getting the Senate that we need and making some modifications if necessary in the filibuster to get the vote so they can be passed there is really essential. But the other thing Amy, we've got strong pro-choice of people here. They are not satisfied that women in Vermont will be protected because we may pass a law. They don't think the woman's right to choose should be based on the zip code of where she lives. So I think there's a real concern here about Vermont but also about all women. That's exactly right. And I guess, Speaker, you worked, I didn't know you worked at Planned Parenthood for nearly eight years. So my other colleague in the Senate, Tina Smith is the only Senator that worked at Planned Parenthood. So now I'll tell her that she has a colleague in leadership. And what we've seen with other states across the country in restricting reproductive rights, talk about what's happening with this Prop 5 and the initiative and what's going on with the legislature. And I guess unlike everyone else here, I don't know what the history is here on votes in the legislature on choice, so I'd love to know that. It's so great to have you here. Thank you for joining us and we're just so proud of your leadership in the Senate and we're gonna make sure that Peter's joining you in November. So, I think it really starts off with a story. I, having worked at Planned Parenthood for so long and running for the appointment to the House because reproductive rights was critical for me and then we were talking about access to birth control and how we can expand that. I never would have thought that our generation of leaders would be having to protect basic access to healthcare, to abortion care. And it was in the summer of 2018, I was knocking on doors and we had heard that the Brett Kavanaugh was gonna be appointed and the confirmation hearings were happening. And I was knocking on doors with a candidate cheering her on and I was like, we just gotta keep on going. And we were talking about what we were gonna need to do to protect access to abortion care in our state. And while we're having that conversation, we knocked on a door and this young woman came to the door in tears and you could see that she was watching the hearing. And she just said, I can't believe this is happening in my lifetime and what are we gonna do here in Vermont? And I said, we are gonna protect your rights. And we did. So, we decided that we needed to come up with a short term and a long term plan to do that. So in 2019, we passed a bill to codify Roe into our state statutes that had very strong overwhelming support in both the house and the Senate. And then the long term plan was to pass Prop 5, a reproductive liberty constitutional amendment. To put it in the constitution. To put it in the constitution for the long term. Which some states have something. Yes, this is explicit though. And so we were the first. Of course you are. And I know that there are other states in the fall. But it's really, we just felt, we really needed to do everything we could in our power. And passing a constitutional amendment is not an easy feat. It needs to go through, start in the Senate, goes through a biennium and then following biennium we have to pass it again. I see. And then after it passes that second biennium, it goes to the voters. And so we are working incredibly hard on the campaign trail to advocate and to remind people it was Democrats who led on this. We need their support to pass it in November. We can't take anything, anything for granted. And we had really great strong women leading this effort from Becca Ballant. And then our chairs that were Senator Ginny Lyons and Anne Pugh, Representative Anne Pugh and Maxine Gratt on the House side leading the effort. And you just would have been so proud to hear the debate on the floor and just the passion that our members had to make sure that we got this voted with a strong vote and send it to the electorate. So we are in a really, this is a really great situation that we're in and I'm proud that we're leading here. I just remind people that 10-year-old in Ohio that it was right, that's right. Victim has to go to another state just to get her health care. No one believed the story, remember that? Then it ended up to be true. Then the doctor that performed the abortion got started to get investigated. That was in Indiana. I mean, this is, your point is this is real. It's a crisis, it's happening now. Yeah, absolutely. We have a third-year medical student who's been taking a leave sitting. You know, we're proud of Vermont that we have good services for women. But in Minnesota, it's the same thing as Senator Kovachar I just mentioned. But tell us about the impact on Vermont if we not only have to provide help to our own citizens, but we're a safe haven for others who come. Yeah, absolutely and I'd like to say thank you so much for having me here. I mean, this morning I was in sweatpants taking the exam, so it's kind of crazy to have a few hours difference we'll make, but I'm really honored to be here. Are you in the middle of exams? Or are we taking you away? I was taking a shelf exam for a rotation, yeah. Okay, good, so you're not like, and tomorrow? No. We're good. I just want to ask you very quick questions. Yeah, okay. No, I think the impact on Vermont, I think first of all, Vermont is kind of like a beacon of hope for a lot of other states. And I think you can continue being that by allowing patients and physicians to practice autonomously, keeping church and state separate, and by ratifying Article 22 into the Vermont Constitution. And I think, you know, the larger College of Medicine and UVM can act as role models for other institutions, how they can serve the public and patients with reproductive liberties. I think a good way to kind of juxtapose between what would happen if you do have rights, versus if you don't, is to kind of think about what happens when you don't. And for that, I think physicians are really concerned for themselves and for what it means for their ability to practice medicine with autonomy. And so, more important is how is the impact of reproductive restrictions gonna impact patients themselves? And it will disproportionately affect people of color in those gender minorities, and in low economic status. In at LARNER, there's been a shift in our curriculum to highlight some of these social aspects, and how they affect health and wellness as well as the normal pathophysiology and things of that sort. We do this through a social medicine theme of the week, which is really helpful in our learning, but it does highlight some of the consequences we can have when we don't have the productive freedoms. So like I said, I think the most vulnerable will be affected and we'll see that impacted on our state. And as a future physician, I mean, I'm concerned for these communities that already struggle with significant inequities. And as a group, we're worried that the choice over when and how you become pregnant will further cause harm, physical and mental harm to other individuals and their wellness, as well as further divide Americans along these economic and social lines. And I'd be remiss to say, as a female medical student, I don't worry about it for training and where I will end up and my future colleagues. Well, there are, I mean, there's bills introduced in state legislatures to hold doctors and healthcare professionals live. Right, yeah, it's astonishing. Yeah, thank you, Sydney. And Dr. Chan, our former health commissioner, there's a lot of misconceptions about Article 22 that the opponents are trying to make it into something it's not pretty simply, it's about reproductive freedom, but maybe you could address that. Yeah, sure, so thank you both for being here and for supporting reproductive freedom nationwide and for supporting us in our effort to pass Prop 5 or Article 22. As a former health commissioner and an emergency physician, I really know firsthand how important access to reproductive healthcare is for the public health. I saw personally how intensely private and personal these decisions were and how really they're firmly belong between a patient and their provider. There's no role for government there. And I think the key thing for people to understand is that we have access to all of that here now, based, thankful, grateful to the legislature, but we wanna make sure of that. We wanna guarantee that for generations to come because we all know that legislatures change and attitude changes. So we don't want that to happen in Vermont like we're seeing in other states. In terms of misconceptions, there are a lot of what I'll say falsehoods and misleading statements that are made about Proposition 5 or Article 22. One, for example, is this concept of abortion till birth. That's not a medical term. That's a political term, pure and subtle. There are no abortions till birth today. There won't be abortions till birth after the past Article 22. Another one is this sub-concept of adding a degree of autonomy for fathers now. This is not about fathers. This is about individuals and their own autonomy to take care of their own healthcare period. And the final one is there's some concern about conscience about how this will affect providers that may not want to perform procedures based on their conscience. There's clearly procedures in place that will allow for that. Obviously, understanding that there are limits to that based on the health and the welfare of their patients. And then finally, I think it's important to understand that things won't, this is not a drastic radical thing here in Proposition 5. Many people would like you to think. It was passed by two legislatures, two separate legislatures. It's supported by all the major party candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. There's nothing radical here. It's really a clear statement for the future that Vermonters trust Vermonters to make these important healthcare decisions on their own with consultation with their physicians. And all the same safeguards that are here today for common sense we've conducted healthcare will be there tomorrow after we pass Article 22 at Proposition 5. That was well said. Thank you all very much. You want to end with anything? No, you should. I think actually, you have to win at some point. You know, we're kind of all in this together. And this threat from the Supreme Court, they've indicated with their decision that they don't stop here. The doctrine of the originalism, which is a crack fight legal theory, is suggesting that anything that is a right, that isn't written right into the constitution, gay marriage or interracial marriage, you're both controlled. All of those are subject to the Supreme Court review. But what is so delaying to me about the sitting you and I were talking about it, and when you had bro, everybody had a right to make their decision. It's a tough decision. But no one had a right to impose their decision on another person. And there was peace, even if it was a struggle for every person who had to make that call. And we need more unity, not more division in this country. So I want to thank everybody for participating in that. I've never heard anyone talk about it that way. I think that's a really good thought, just because there always was choice and it's hard for people, they have to make their own choice. But here, you're imposing it on others at a time where we are actually coming out of this pandemic, trying to bring people together because they all come out of their own separate silos. And so these decisions and the rhetoric and some of the things that are going on, I sort of like destined to try to separate them again. It's just, and create up people. And it's really, really hard. Well, thank you. You're welcome to Vermont. Thank you.