 Well, I want to thank the panelists for coming, and Bernie, I really appreciate you joining us today. But it's a somber day. It's an astonishing thing that happened in Texas, because it effectively bans abortion and completely interferes with the right of a woman to choose. It's completely in conflict with Roe v. Wade. It appears to be absolutely and clearly unconstitutional. But you have the political authority of a state essentially passing a law that completely compromises the constitutional rights of women throughout this country. The second thing it does is, you know, is staggeringly dangerous. It essentially creates a vigilante mob enforcement mechanism where there's a financial incentive provided to people who oppose the right of a woman to choose to not only sue that woman, but anybody who, quote, aides that woman. It could be a mom taking a daughter to the clinic. It could be a sister. It could be a good friend that is just essentially an Uber driver providing transportation. And we don't need imagination to see how that sets citizen against citizen in a state of enormous conflict as opposed to citizen debating citizen, which is always fair in a democracy. In the House, I believe this week we're going to take up legislation that all the Democrats I believe in the House are cosponsoring, Representative Judy choose legislation to codify Roe v. Wade and protect the right of women throughout the states to continue to have the protections of Roe v. Wade. Of course that's something that our Vermont legislature, thank you, led on. So we're here to talk about that today and hear from the folks here who have been on the forefront for years protecting the right of women to choose and I want to thank you and just for the run of show so you know we're going to hear from Senator Sanders in a minute and then Lucy, my former colleague in the State House from Planned Parenthood, Alain Gregory Davis, thank you, UVM medical students for choice, Falco Shilling from the ACLU and Senator Lyons, my colleague, Representative Ampute, my former colleague, House is Senate and House, Josh Diamond from the Attorney General's Office in our House, and really I think the godmother of advocacy, Melinda Moulton, we're all grateful to you for your years. So I want to turn it over now to my colleague, Senator Sanders, Bernie, you've been there from day one on this and I really want to express on behalf of all of us our gratitude for your leadership. Bernie? Well Peter, thank you very much and let me thank all of the individuals and organizations not only for being here today but for the years of long struggle to make sure that at the end of the day it is women and non-politicians who are able to control their lives and I want to say a word to the men out there and I want you all to be thinking about how you would feel if the government, state government, federal government told you what you had to do with your own body. You would say this is outrageous, this is unacceptable, this is a denial of my basic rights and it is. We are in this together. This is not a women's issue, it's not a men's issue. This is a human rights issue. Anybody who believes in freedom understands you cannot force and coerce somebody to do something with their own body except for whatever reason they choose not to do. So I want to applaud what the Vermont State Legislature is attempting to do and certainly I think we have in Washington got to do our best to codify where we wait. The other point that I would make is in this rather unprecedented moment in American history, one might think that there would be an effort on the part of political leaders in Texas and all of them to try to bring us together around issues of common interest and yet here we have a nation today, the richest nation on earth where we continue to have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any other nation say here we have these folks talking about children and the rights of children and yet you got millions of children in this country who are struggling with poverty and I might say that just recently and I want to thank the president and colleagues Peter and the house and said to the American rescue planet we have cut childhood poverty in America by over half. That's a pretty good thing. You know how many Republicans we have supporting that in Congress? Zero. All right. We have over 90 million people who are uninsured or underinsured and yet we have our Republican colleagues trying to end repeal the Affordable Care Act and not expand healthcare in the way that has to be done. So this is not only an attack on women's rights only an attack on human rights. What it is is another effort to try to divide us up by the same people who refuse to recognize the crisis of climate who we fuse in some cases to urge fellow Americans to get the vaccines they need to combat this terrible pandemic that we face. So I again just want to we're very grateful for the leadership here in the state of Vermont. I hope Vermont leads the nation in this direction and just want to thank all of you for the great work that you're doing. Thank you. Thank you. Lucy. Thank you for the leadership here turn the floor over to you. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you doing this representative Walsh and thank you for joining. I mean, Peter, I'm sorry, I'm going to start over. Thank you for having us and thank you for convening this group. Representative Walsh and thank you for joining us, Senator Sanders. We are and I want to also thank the press. I see there's quite a few members of the press here. I just want to thank you for your good coverage and for talking about the Texas law. I think it's really important and really relevant for us in Vermont and all across the nation. And here's why. In Texas, we have a law that's clearly unconstitutional. Our U.S. Supreme Court has decided to in a midnight decision to let it stand and go into effect. It effectively bans abortion after six weeks. So let's put that into perspective for a second. Six weeks is before many people know they're pregnant. Most people won't even have a positive pregnancy pregnancy test until four or five weeks. That means to get an abortion. They they have a they have a week, maybe two at best to suspect that they may be pregnant, confirm that they are a confirm an appointment with a provider, have an ultrasound, wait 24 hours, and then have a second appointment with that same provider to have a procedure. So or to to go through the process. So this is clearly a it effectively bans abortion. So it really matters to us because as Representative Welch had mentioned earlier in his remarks, it creates a vigilante justice kind of system, a Sue thy neighbor system where people get financial rewards for turning in their neighbor. A person who's subjected to harassment could be further harassed and encouraged to be further harassed by an abusive partner or disgruntled neighbor. And the attorney's fees aren't even recoverable for people who prove that they are innocent. So we have a really unjust law that's gone into effect and already right now there are states that are jumping to pass copycat laws. And guess what? You might think Florida, yes, but right next door in New Hampshire we have a lawmaker who is vowed to jump on the bandwagon and pass a similar law in New Hampshire. So that's the state of affairs with regards to the Texas law. And then just for the larger context nationally, we've seen over 600, 600 separate restrictions or attempts at restrictions introduced in the United States. That is the worst year in terms of restrictions introduced nationally since the road decision was decided in 1973. So now our next large hurdle or threat here is that we have a Supreme Court case that the Supreme Court has decided to take up a case. It's a Mississippi 15-week abortion ban, DOPS versus Jackson Women's Help. And this is the case where oral arguments are going to be coming up very soon. I'm sure maybe our attorney general, our assistant attorney general, Josh Diamond, may want to talk about this a little more. But this is a very concerning moment for us because many believe that with the new composition of the Supreme Court we have three Trump appointees, and this will be the first case, abortion case, that the court will have heard since Amy Coney Barrett joined the court. So we know what the composition of the court, we can count the vote already. We know that there is not support for Roe v. Wade to continue on the current Supreme Court. And that's why it's so important that these legislative heroes, who are here to my right, Representative Ann Pugh and Senator Ginny Lyons, and also the heroes at the attorney general's office, TJ Donovan and team, have worked together to move forward and have the foresight and vision to move forward, anticipating this day a constitutional amendment called Proposition 5 or the Reproductive Liberty Amendment. So it would enshrine reproductive rights in our constitution. So I will leave more discussion of that to those speakers, and I will now yield the floor. Thank you, Lucy, very much. Kailin Gregory Davis, thank you for being here. I'm the leader of the UVM Medical Students for Choice. Kailin. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for inviting me to speak today. So my name is Kailin Gregory Davis, and I'm a fourth year medical student at the UVM Learner College of Medicine, and I'm currently serving as the president of the Board of Directors of Medical Students for Choice. So this is an international organization dedicated to ensuring abortion access and training for medical students worldwide. And so at Medical Students for Choice, our mission is to ensure that medical students have the tools and skills to become the abortion providers that this world needs. This feels precarious when legislation closes down clinics and overwhelms training sites that remain. So what's happening right now in Texas feels particularly close to home to me as I grapple with what this will mean for me and my training in the next couple of months. So I start my reproductive health externship in two weeks in New Mexico, and I'll be spending three months training with the abortion providers there to supplement my medical education with firsthand abortion training. So I've been in touch with the providers at this clinic, and they're seeing inflex in patients from Texas to the point where they've had to hire additional providers during this time to handle the increase in volume. And this for me has an eerie feeling of history repeating itself, because I actually studied midwifery in Texas, and I was living in El Paso in the aftermath of House Bill 2 that shut down the vast majority of clinics in the state, so it was in 2014. And as a provider, I saw firsthand the devastation that comes when a huge state bans abortion. So I saw people traveling upwards of 15 hours to get the care they needed, and I actually worked for an abortion fund that had to send people to other states, such as New Mexico, to get an abortion. We knew people were crossing into Mexico to get misoprostal, which they could get over the counter there, and then out of desperation, self-administering at home. And so we held self-managed abortion workshops for harm reduction. And I then worked as a counselor and a midwife at an abortion clinic in New Mexico, where over 50% of our patient population was coming from Texas. So I've had countless patients whose stories I've witnessed to share just a few. A mother of three living in poverty, having an abortion, so she could give her three children a better life, a 12-year-old impregnated by her mother's boyfriend, an indigenous woman whose spiritual beliefs were entirely against abortion, but whose baby was sick, a woman battling cancer and during pregnancy because of what Kimo was doing to her fetuses dividing cells, a lesbian team who'd been victim to non-consensual sex with a man, a trans man who was told he couldn't get pregnant because he was taking testosterone. So these are all just a few, but all of these patients traveling hours and hours piecing together what little funds they have for food, lodging, and traveling. And this was all for a procedure that could have been less than 10 minutes and could have happened in their hometown. So it's financial, emotional, and physical stress that simply doesn't need to be. And I feel really saddened by this hardship. And I'm fearful of other states following suit, as Lucy was mentioning. And I'm also hopeful that this is yet another wake-up call, just showing us how much legislation matters and the importance of passing bills and amendments that safeguard against such a horrific breach of human rights. So as a future abortion provider and a student whose training will be affected by this situation in Texas, it brings to light these broad ripples that such bans have on the lives of everyone involved. So for me, this brings to light the importance of Proposition 5. And I'm currently a member of the Vermont Speaker's Bureau. And I feel absolutely committed to doing what is needed to support the reproductive liberty amendment here in Vermont. Because I've seen a devastation of what can happen when legislation heads in an anti-choice direction. And I am so ready to see the growth and the safety that comes when a state does the opposite and declares reproductive freedom a human right. And then on a personal level, I'm a 31-year-old Vermonter with a uterus. So I'm considering options of birth control, pregnancy, parenting, adoption. So Proposition 5 also feels personal to me. And I need my home constitution to support my own reproductive freedom. And for me, that means the ability to pursue whatever methods of conception work best for me and my partner. Means I have an option to end a pregnancy if need be, to access birth control if desired, to have fertility assistance if need be. And ultimately, to give birth where I feel the most supported and safe. These are basic human rights. And on a professional level, as the president of medical students for choice and as a student at the Larner College of Medicine, I need my home constitution to support my medical practice so that I can safely provide people the options that they deserve. So I'm studying medicine in Vermont because I believe in this community. This is my home. And I ask in return that state legislation believe in me and my fellow students and providers and community members and patients by entrusting us with reproductive freedom. That's the fundamental right to safe, legal and accessible reproductive options. I've witnessed that the alternative is too dangerous and substandard to accept. And so I've witnessed what you all know to be true. That legislation matters. So thank you for being here today. Thank you very much. Excellent. And now let's hear from Falco Schilling from the Vermont ACLU. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, one for everyone for being here. Representative Welch for convening this. Senator Sanders for joining us today. And just for the great legislative leaders we have here, both on the federal and on the state level, we put Vermont on a very different path from many other places in the country. Which is one reason that I know many of us feel so proud to call this state home. This is a deeply personal issue for so many people, both here in Vermont and around the country. Because we know we're not really free unless we have the freedom to make our own decisions about our own healthcare and our own life paths. As someone who is expecting a child and is planning a family, this is deeply personal for me and so many other people I know. And when you hear the stories coming out of Texas, it's deeply troubling and saddening. You hear the stories on the radio just this morning of people queuing up in line, hoping that they might be able to get the medication they need before this ban goes into effect. People fearing how they're going to travel hundreds of miles out of the state to get the care they need. Especially when these are some of the people that have the least access to resources in the first place. Laws like these only further exacerbate the health disparities that already exist in our country for so many people. And we've seen late bear during the pandemic. And that's why the ACLU joined by Planned Parenthood, ACLU of Texas, Center for Reproductive Rights, sued to stop this law from going into effect. We brought suit in the federal court in Texas because we knew the way this law was designed, it was made to evade judicial review. And it's doing exactly what it was intended to do right now, which is an incredible problem. This law targets providers and those who would aid people in getting lawful and constitutionally protected abortions with vigilante bounty hunter suits, which are completely unconstitutional yet because of the weird the loopholes written to this law that other states are now eyeing and hoping to put in effect the day the Supreme Court might uphold the law like this. We know we need to push back and we know this is something that we cannot let stand. So the ACLU and our allies across the country are continuing to fight this case in the courts in Texas as well as at the Supreme Court. And that begs the question, all right, we're doing that. What can we do here? What can we do here in Vermont? And I often say, when I'm talking to my colleagues, I know my job isn't easy working for the ACLU. That is never easy. But it's not as hard as some of my colleagues' jobs across the country. I see some of the things they're having to push back again since the things they're having to battle. And I feel quite grateful to work in the state that I work in and with the leaders that I get to work with who have the vision to ensure not only that right row versus way is protected, but the reproductive liberty of all Vermonters is protected now and going forward. That's why this is reproductive liberty has not only been enshrined in our legislation, but now we're moving to enshrine in our Constitution because we need to have as much protection as possible to these fundamental rights for all Vermonters for as long as possible. And that's what we do. When we want to enshrine our rights, we put them in our Constitution. And that's why Vermont voters will hopefully have the chance to go to the ballot box this November and say, these are the rights we believe in. These are the rights that we need to enshrine going forward. So I just want to thank everyone who's been here today, everyone who's been part of that effort, and everyone who's going to be part of that effort going forward. Thank you, Falco. Thank you very much. And now, Senator Jenny Lyons, my colleague from years we served together in the state senate and she's the original senate sponsor of the reproductive liberty amendment, Senator Lyons. Thank you very much, Congressman Welch. And thank you, Senator Sanders, as well as Lucy Lyrich and all the others who are here. We couldn't be proposing a constitutional amendment for the fundamental right of reproductive liberty if we didn't have the leadership that we have at the federal level. There's just no doubt about it. We're so fortunate in this state to have you there and we really greatly appreciate the work that you do. This constitutional amendment, Proposition 5, began in 2018 when I talked with some folks about my concerns around reproductive liberty and abortion rights and had a bill drafted so we could put this proposition in. And then, fortunately, we had good support from our pro tem, Tim Ash, at that time, and then also Becca Ballant, whose current pro tem. So the proposition has gone through one whole biennium and been presented to the senate and voted on 28 to 2, almost unanimously. And then this past, during this current session, the senate again voted on the proposition and has sent it to the House for confirmation. So the role of the senate is to draft the bill and the language so that is consistent with the constitution. We've done that. As you know, Article 1 of our constitution states that all persons are born equally free and independent and have certain rights. That is a key part of the purpose for our constitutional amendment. The other article in the constitution that we feel supports what we're doing is Article 7, the Common Benefits Clause. That affirms the public health of Vermont citizens. So the constitutional amendment gives us reproductive liberty as a fundamental right. Currently, we have that fundamental right in this state and we've had it for nearly 50 years as a result of Roe v. Wade. But it's only a right as a result of court cases. So now we can move forward and move this Article 22, Article 22, into our constitution to build a fundamental right for reproductive liberty. It is time to put the question to the voters. The lack of definitive enumeration of reproductive liberty in Vermont's constitution, the threat of Roe v. Wade being overturned by a very conservative US Supreme Court, and the cloud of a multi-state initiative to pass restrictive, punitive laws all build a strong claim for Article 22 to go to the voters. Voters in the state of Vermont support what we're doing. A majority of voters will support what we're doing. Our job now is to complete our work in the House, Representative Pugh's leadership there, and then take this to the voters in November of 2022. One cannot emphasize enough the role that family planning and decision-making have in one's life course. One cannot emphasize enough the significance and the importance of economic security, social security, and other important aspects of one's personal life that relate to fundamental reproductive liberty, right of fundamental reproductive liberty. So I will close there, and thank you all again. The testimony that we took in our committee came from many of the people sitting around this table. As well as others, it was a broad range of testimony. I want to emphasize that. It wasn't one-sided. We heard pros and cons. And now we're going to hear the pros and cons from the citizens of Vermont, mostly pro. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Lyons. In your counterpart in the House, a leader on this constitutional amendment, Representative Van Pugh. Well, thank you, Congressman Welch, and thank you, Senator Sanders. I could not feel luckier than to be a representative in the state of Vermont to work with and my colleagues in the Senate to have leadership from longtime advocates and citizens such as Melinda Moulton and to see have new doctors come on to the field soon to be. Can I call you Dr. Gregory Davis? Almost, OK. And to realize that Planned Parenthood has been a strong advocate as well as the Attorney General's Office and ACLU. We are not in this alone. Article 22, Proposition 5, that an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one's own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means. It sounds simple. It's one sentence that we would like to add to the Vermont's Constitution. We have added phrases to Vermont's Constitution on several occasions. It is a living document. As stated, it would amend the Constitution to enshrine personal reproductive liberty as a fundamental right. It would be the umbrella that all other state policies and state laws, even the ones that we passed last year, about reproductive liberty, be it umbrella under which they all stand. It restricts, but it does not eliminate the state's ability to regulate. Personal reproductive liberty, it's about more than just abortion. It's about the freedom for those of us who call Vermont home to decide when and whether to have children, to become pregnant, to carry a pregnancy to term, to choose or refuse sterilization, and to choose or refuse contraception. The importance of Proposition 5 to Vermonters cannot be understated. It was important before, and it's important even more now, given what is happening nationally. The house is poised. The house under the leadership of Speaker Krowinski is poised to continue the amendment process in the house soon, as soon as we get back to the state house in January. And I am committed to bringing it. I chair the House Human Services Committee, where Prop 5 currently resides. We will have a public hearing, as we did last time, where the public is able to speak. And I have full confidence that the committee will vote out Proposition 5, as it did in the last biennium. And we will take it to the House floor. The proposition will sit on the House calendar, on the House notice calendar for four days so that people can read that simple sentence and know what they are voting on. And after the fourth day, the House will take a vote. And I am confident, as it did two years ago, that the House will pass this, and it will continue its path towards having the citizens of Vermont, giving the citizens of Vermont the ability, and I might say the right, to make the vote for whether or not, and would make the vote, and I believe, to support reproductive freedom. Vermont's policy has long recognized that decisions related to reproductive health and abortion are deeply personal and private. And they're best left to the individual and their health care provider. Prop 5 keeps things the way they are now and the way they've been for half a century. And I believe that the voters of Vermont will agree. Thank you very much. And now from the Attorney General's office, Vermont Deputy Attorney General Josh Diamond. I would love, Senator Sanders, thank you so much for this opportunity today to come and talk about the fundamental right of reproductive freedom or reproductive autonomy. Prop 5 and the Attorney General's efforts on these matters. And before speaking about Prop 5, as some of the speakers here today have discussed, I'd like to frame this within the national framework, because I think that really bears on the importance of why Prop 5 has been proposed. And really for the last almost five years, the fundamental right to reproductive freedom and reproductive autonomy has been under assault nationally. And I just want to highlight a few of the areas that our office, the Attorney General's office, in coalition with many other states have been leading the fight against these efforts to roll back this important fundamental freedom. Back in 2018, there was a decision by the Trump administration to cut funding under Title 10 to plan parenthood, which is really, as we know here in Vermont, an essential service in the delivery of healthcare to Vermonters. And the Attorney General's office filed comments in opposition of that and led efforts to gather comments from our citizenry to oppose those efforts. There was a decision by the Department of Homeland Security to deny access to abortion services for detained immigrant minors. We filed an amicus brief in that case to oppose such efforts. In 2019, there was once again a change in Title 10 rules that would require family planning clinics to withhold information about abortion and referrals on abortion. We joined our sister states to oppose those efforts as well. In 2020, Vermont with a number of other states filed a challenge to a rule, restricting access to contraception under the ACA, creating an exception for those employers who had a religious or moral objection to providing such healthcare opportunities. And then, as well in 2020, Health and Human Services rule requiring separate billing for abortion services on insurance programs that were provided, once again, Vermont, along with their sister states challenged those efforts as well. And then that brings us to these two landmark cases that are before or had been before the Supreme Court or will be coming before the Supreme Court. Whole Women's Health versus Jackson, which was the challenge to SB 8, as we've heard about today, which is really, again, an assault onto this fundamental freedom that we have recognized for almost 50 years, where it pits neighbor against neighbor, where it tries to undermine the norm, the legal norm, that states do not have the ability to prohibit access to abortion pre-viability. And in this case, in a shadow docket decision, the Supreme Court essentially let this law go into effect. We commend the U.S. Department of Justice's efforts to challenge that law that was filed last week and Vermont in the Vermont Attorney General's Office with a number of other states have filed a friend of the court brief in support of those actions. Coming up in this fall term, in the case of DOBS versus Jackson Women's Health Organization, there is a Mississippi law that is coming before the Supreme Court, which again also challenges the fundamental freedom of reproductive autonomy in banning most abortions after 15 weeks, which again is a direct challenge to the legal precedent that pre-viability abortions should not be restricted. So it's within this context that the Vermont Legislative Leadership, which the Attorney General's Office supported, did two very important things back in 2019. It passed the Freedom of Choice Act, which was a statute that recognized the fundamental liberty interest in reproductive freedom. But because statutes can be changed and no one should be at the subject of the whim of a different legislature, although we are very fortunate to have a wise legislature that recognizes the important freedoms that could change over time. And so hence Proposition 5, a constitutional amendment that does two very important things. One is it expressly recognized as the fundamental freedom to reproductive autonomy. And does that so that there's no ambiguity, that there's no reliance upon a judicial decision that could change over time? But secondly, it states clearly and unequivocally that the level of judicial scrutiny on any ever to limit that fundamental right must be strict scrutiny. So that there is a presumption that government action to limit that right will be prohibited. And that only when there is a compelling governmental interest and that interest is furthered by the most narrow means, the least burdensome means may that fundamental right be impacted. And this is very, very important for Vermonters, not just today, but going forward for our children, our grandchildren and the Attorney General, Attorney General Donovan is very much pleased to support the passage of Proposition 5. Thank you very much. Thank you. And our last speaker is Melinda Moulton who has been the Vermont champion. Thank you Congressman Wills and Senator Sanders for pulling together these remarkable people. My name is Melinda Moulton and I'm 71 years old. The legal right to an abortion did not exist in this country until I was 23 years old and that was back in 1973. I am here today to lend historical context to this discussion and to tell you why the Texas abortion ban should scare all of us. The year is 2021. Imagine that you live in a place where your neighbor could sue your family and friends, healthcare provider or even your pastor and therapist for helping you secure an abortion after six weeks. Well, welcome to Texas and this is real time. Texas citizens can sue anyone who assists a woman seeking an abortion after six weeks. The Lone Star State has taken its long horn and stabbed it into the road versus way constitutional right for all women to obtain a safe and legal abortion. On anti-abortion sites in Texas, you will find language that says in quotes, the law authorizes citizens to sue and seek financial damages from the support networks who help women get an abortion, such as families, friends, counselors, pastors, healthcare providers and more. And there is a designated area on these anti-abortion sites where you can leave in quotes, information anonymously about aiding or abetting a woman from securing a safe abortion after six weeks. Incredulously, the Lone Star State received 5-4 support from our Supreme Court. So what does this mean for American citizens of reproductive age as anti-abortion legislation supported by our now conserved Supremes heats up across the country? Well, let me tell you a most personal and deeply painful story about my mother. When I was just eight years old, my father and mother divorced and my mother became a single parent with four children to raise. I remember the night my mother was rushed to the hospital because she was found bleeding on the floor of our bathroom. Years later, I learned from my aunt that my mother attempted and succeeded to abort her pregnancy. Eventually, my mother fell in love again, but when this man got her pregnant, he abandoned her. What I remember is that my mother left for what she said was an operation. In fact, she was going to a secret hospital where women went to give birth in secret without anyone ever knowing. After she gave birth, the doctor performed a hysterectomy, which went wrong, and my mother developed peritonitis and over a five month period, lying alone in that hard so-called hospital. She withered away, got pneumonia and died three days before Christmas. My mother died in 1962, 11 years before abortion was made safe and legal in this country. I was 12 when she died and she was just 40 years old. Her four young children were left motherless. In closing, I wanna explain to you that women will always, always choose their own reproductive destiny and the reality is it will either be at the dangerous end of a coat hanger or it will remain safe and the capable and trained hands of a professional. We must ensure that it remains the latter. Vermont is taking strong bold steps to protect women in their reproductive health choices. We passed age 57 a couple of years ago and there is the Constitutional Reproductive Liberty Amendment moving through the legislature that will enshrine these rights. Women cannot realize full equality if we are not allowed control over our own bodies. Reproductive freedom for women is a human right and most Vermonters agree. Passing Prop 5 is an extremely crucial step to ensure we never, ever allow anyone to force us to return to the days where women like my mother must endure humiliation and potentially life-threatening procedures that often cost them their lives. Thank you. Thank you. Melinda, thank you very much. So that's the real world. Any questions to any of the folks who are here in the press? I have a question for both of you and Senator Sanders. There is the expectation that there is going to be anti-abortion groups, funding anti-abortion campaigns with Prop 5 does come up to vote in Vermont. What is your message to those groups? You want to go burn? I'll go first. Vermonters are to support the right of women make this choice. By the way, that is going to happen. There is an enormous campaign organized and financed as we saw in Texas to limit the reproductive rights of women and that's why this action that the State of Vermont is taking in the efforts that Senator Sanders and I are making to codify the rights of Roe v. Wade is so important. This is a fight that's engaged. This is real. The threat is real. And the consequences of Texas style law becoming, spreading out throughout the country is very threatening. So we all have to mobilize. And that's a major part of the reason we're all here together, renewing our commitment to protect reproductive rights for women. Bernie? People can do whatever they want in terms of advertising. But I think what makes Vermont an extraordinary state is our belief in freedom and human liberty goes way, way back to the inception of the state. And I think at the end of the day, I think all of the speakers have acknowledged we have absolute confidence that the voters in the state are going to overwhelmingly support the right of a woman to control our own money. Able to briefly go through the timeline of what the launchers can expect, just like simplified of what the next step is for this proposition. You go first. I'll try. Prop five currently sits in the House Human Services Committee. And we will take testimony. We will have a public hearing. We will do that between January and February before the time being recessed. The committee will take a vote on whether or not to move Proposition five to the House floor. I have full confidence that the committee will be voting yes. It will sit on the House calendar. For four days so everyone can see it and read it. And after four days, the full House will take a vote. It'll be a roll call vote by majority of the members present in the House. And it is an up or down vote. We cannot change any of the words at all. Once we vote, and I am confident that the House will vote yes, as we did two years ago. It will go to the governor. And the governor has to issue a proclamation where I'm putting it on the ballot in November of 2022. When the voters in Vermont will have the ability to vote to support something that has based reflects Vermont's values and beliefs and what has been the policy for half a century. So just one last comment on that. When it once it leaves the House and it goes out to be put on the ballot, the Secretary of State will take out Article 22 and Article 22 alone is what will be voted on. So that is the second part of Proposition Five. All the other language will be gone. So the purpose will be gone. It'll simply be that one sentence that Representative Pugh read earlier. The Secretary of State will put it, then put it on the ballot for the voters. There's another set of small rules regarding how the proclamation is issued, the timing and so on. But that'll happen. If the voters approve the amendment, Prop Five, when would it be effective? When would the Constitution actually change? Once Article 22 is voted favorably, it will go directly into the Constitution and I believe it becomes effective immediately, does it, Josh? That's my understanding, Senator. So as soon as, so Article 22 is added. 22. So right now there are 21 articles in the Constitution. 21 changes. 21 changes. Additions. So if you look at Vermont's Constitution and you look at the articles that are listed, it ends with the 21st and the next publication would have Article 22. And that's the one sentence that you read. Yes. Could you read that again for me? Certainly. That an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one's own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means. Is that the same as H.R. 3755 that was in the press release for today? Is that Article 22? Is that the same as H.R. 3755? Or is that different? I didn't hear what you said. I'm sorry, I'm not hearing what you're saying. I couldn't hear what you said. You might be referring to the congressional. Yeah, this is the Vermont legislation and the federal legislation that I believe we're gonna be voting on in the House protects and codifies Roe v. Wade rights to women throughout the country. And it would, in effect, it would prohibit a law like the Texas law from interfering with a woman's right to choose. That might be coming up for a vote in the House, is it starting in the House? It's in the House, and I think it's gonna come up this week. We spoke to Speaker Pelosi and her intention is to put that on as soon as possible. So we may well be voting on that this week. Do you have any indication if it's gonna pass easily through the House? It won't be easily, but I believe it'll pass in the House. I think it probably faces more challenges in the Senate, but Senator Sanders can speak to that. But I have confidence that we will pass that in the House. Passed what? The Article 22 or something different now? No, this is... For Vermont, Air Washington. Right. Article 22. What? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Article 22 is only dealing with Vermont. The Vermont Constitution. And then S1975, the Women's Health Protection Act is going to be voted on by Congress, by the House of Representatives in D.C. And the Bards to Vermont? No, this is towards the whole nation. Okay. Vermont is amending its constitution. That's what the leaders here have described. We propose a statute, not a constitutional amendment, but that statute would provide legal protection for women throughout the country. Senator Sanders, do you have any indication if the Congressional Reproductive Act will be able to pass through the Senate smoothly? It's gonna be a struggle. There are some Democrats who may not support it. There are some few Republicans who will. Whether we get the votes or not is not clear at this point. If it passes, what would the implications be for the Texas law and other laws that are being considered that would be similar to the Texas law? Well, that's a lawyer's answer, but... What we're talking about is codifying Roe vs. Wade and taking it out of being a court decision to being the law of the length. But would it be retroactive in some way and therefore negate the Texas law? Well, it would in fact negate the Texas law. As of the day it became law. So every woman in Texas would be afforded the protection of that legislation immediately. We can't undo what Texas has done retroactively. I mean, it's doing damage each day as the calendar page flips, but we can't stop it with legislation. So maybe one last, I'm sorry, one last question because Senator Sanderson, I don't have to head out to the airport pretty soon. I think you have a timeline with this. If I have that one or not, can we have a little bit? I'm calling it HR 3755 because that's what it was in the release, but would you clarify the name for me again in the timeline of it? Well, let me just clarify for you. The HR refers to house resolution and that's the Congressional Act. And Senator Sanderson and I are here in our federal roles where we're promoting legislation that would essentially protect reproductive freedom. The Vermont legislature has taken the lead really in the nation by putting those protections in the constitution of our own state. And that's a tremendous act of leadership by the Vermont General Assembly. So there are two separate issues. The Vermont legislators are working on the constitutional amendment. Senator Sanderson and I are working on congressional statute. So the congressional statute, does that have the timeline for that? Well, the timeline is the House will vote on it, I believe this week. No, later than next week. And then Senator Sanders. I don't think there's clarity yet when the Senate will vote on it. One more time. Okay. Senator Sanders, it looks like the social policy bill will not be able to include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented foreigners. Do you have a next step in mind or a next plan about how that pathway could be secured? Well, it's gonna be more difficult now, but we do. Look, I think you've got 11 million people in this country who are undocumented, who in many cases have worked here for decades, who in the midst of the pandemic have put their lives on the line to keep the economy going. We got young people who came to this country at the age of one or two, some of whom are now serving the US military, the teachers, the doctors or whatever. So I am disappointed and frankly not surprised by the parliamentarian's decision that we're gonna do everything that we can to continue the fight to make sure that there is a path towards citizenship for the undocumented. Do you think Democrat leadership will go forward despite the Senate problems very abstract conditions? Well, that's the political decisions that the leadership has to make based on votes. Thank you. The other thing you guys need to deal with as you go back is the debt ceiling. Do you think that you'll be able to raise the debt ceiling, or are we running him only into the government shutdown? Well, you're running not only into the possibility of a government shutdown, you're running into the possibility of the most powerful economy on earth and not paying its bills, which will lead to economic chaos throughout the entire world. And it is really rather astounding that you have a United Republican Party, supposedly the conservative and responsible party prepared to not pay its bills and bring the economic disasters that will follow. So we will see what happens. But obviously, the United States of America has got to pay its bills, especially the bills that were accrued under the Trump administration. You know, the debt ceiling will be raised. The question is how much damage will be done in the effort to resist doing what ultimately has to be done, wouldn't you say? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. President Sanders, do you have a statement on the Department of Defense waste and fraud and adequate statement you released today? Do I have a statement on the statement? Yes, you got it. I do have a statement on the statement. Let's try it out. Look, the Department of Defense is the only major government agency that has not undergone an independent audit. Right. It is a huge budget, $740 billion. I think, I think most observers think it's full of waste and fraud, cost overruns, et cetera. So I think the time is long overdue for the Department of Defense, like every other agency of the government to be held accountable. Okay, thank you all very much. Thank you.