{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-marks-fourth-anniversary-of-supreme-courts-dobbs-decision/", "Thune Marks Fourth Anniversary of Supreme Court\u2019s Dobbs Decision", "2026-06-24", "2026", "2026-06", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, today we mark four years since the Supreme Court\u2019s Dobbs decision \u2013 the landmark Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and returning the question of abortion to the people and their elected representatives.\n\n\u201cRoe was, quite simply, terrible constitutional law \u2013 a fact that\u2019s been acknowledged by legal scholars across the political spectrum.\n\n\u201cAnd the Dobbs decision reversed this decades-old error and made it clear that Roe\u2019s \u2026 supposed constitutional right to an abortion simply didn\u2019t exist.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m proud to have fought, along with my Republican colleagues, to put justices on the Supreme Court who focus on interpreting the law and the Constitution \u2013 instead of creating new constitutional law out of thin air, as justices did in Roe.\n\n\u201cMr. President, it\u2019s fitting that the Dobbs decision occurs close to our nation\u2019s birthday \u2013 July 4, the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.\n\n\u201cAnd as we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration \u2013 the 250th birthday of our country \u2013 the proximity of these two anniversaries has been on my mind.\n\n\u201cThe Declaration lays out the fundamental principles underlying our system of government.\n\n\u201cAnd no lines are more important than these:\n\n\u201c\u2018We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018\u2026 that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.\u2019\n\n\u201cUnalienable rights, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cRights given by God, rights that come before government, and that government is required to protect.\n\n\u201c\u2018All men are created equal \u2026 [and] endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.\u2019\n\n\u201cMr. President, as our country knows, to its sorrow, we haven\u2019t always lived up to the principles of the Declaration.\n\n\u201cAnd the sad truth is that when it comes to unborn Americans, we are failing to live up to those principles today.\n\n\u201cBecause in state after state around this country, it is legal to kill unborn human beings \u2013 unborn Americans \u2013 in some cases up until the point of birth.\n\n\u201cUp until the point of birth, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cThese babies \u2013 these human beings \u2013 will never have the chance to enjoy the rest of their unalienable rights because they are denied their most fundamental right while they\u2019re still in their infancy.\n\n\u201cThis is not, of course, something you will hear from my Democrat colleagues when they attempt to defend abortion.\n\n\u201cYou won\u2019t hear about the baby whose rights are at stake.\n\n\u201cIn fact, my Democrat colleagues do everything they can to obscure the baby in this debate.\n\n\u201cThey mention women and \u2018health care\u2019 and \u2018reproductive freedom\u2019 \u2013 as if killing an innocent person could ever be something we\u2019re free to do \u2013 and they never mention the other person in question, which is the unborn human being who is sacrificed in every abortion.\n\n\u201cProbably because they know at some level that supporting the killing of an innocent human being is indefensible \u2013 and completely incompatible with our nation\u2019s creed.\n\n\u201cAnd let\u2019s be very clear here, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cWhen we talk about abortion, we are talking about the killing of a human being.\n\n\u201cEveryone knows this \u2013 even my Democrat colleagues know this, although they might like to gloss over the fact.\n\n\u201cYou don\u2019t even need to have seen a baby kicking her feet and sucking her thumb on an ultrasound to know that she\u2019s human.\n\n\u201cBecause human moms and human dads \u2026 have other human beings.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s Biology 101.\n\n\u201cNo, Mr. President, the question isn\u2019t whether the unborn baby is a human being \u2013 the question is whether we value that human being. Whether we really believe our American creed.\n\n\u201c\u2018We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life \u2026\u2019\n\n\u201cDo we really believe that, Mr. President?\n\n\u201cOr do we believe that it\u2019s okay to say that some human beings are more important than others?\n\n\u201cThat some human beings can be sacrificed for others?\n\n\u201cI would hope history has taught us that it is a very dangerous thing to say that some groups of human beings are not worthy of protection.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I am proud to be from a state that has extended the full protection of the laws to unborn human beings \u2013 that has recognized that unborn Americans are also created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights.\n\n\u201cAnd I am proud to have supported, sponsored, and co-sponsored pro-life legislation here in Congress.\n\n\u201cThe overturning of Roe has opened the door to substantive pro-life legislation \u2013 and Republicans in Congress are going to keep up the fight for real protections for unborn Americans.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m very proud that with the Working Families Tax Cuts, Congress enacted the first pro-life law in decades.\n\n\u201cThanks to Republicans\u2019 landmark legislation, this year some of the nation\u2019s largest abortion providers \u2013 including Planned Parenthood \u2013 were prohibited from receiving federal Medicaid funding.\n\n\u201cOrganizations that have turned the killing of babies into a business were cut off from this source of taxpayer dollars.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the Dobbs decision was a landmark decision because it opened the door for full protection of the unalienable rights of unborn Americans.\n\n\u201cBut there is a lot more work to be done.\n\n\u201cThe Democrat Party fights tooth and nail to ensure that even the most commonsense measures \u2013 like measures to protect babies who survive abortions, or to ensure pregnant college students are aware that they have alternatives to abortion \u2013 do not make it through Congress.\n\n\u201cAnd currently mail-order abortion drugs are flooding into states \u2013 in defiance of the law \u2013 thanks to the Biden administration\u2019s decision to loosen restrictions on these drugs, despite the fact that they pose a danger to women \u2013 as well as, obviously, to their babies.\n\n\u201cSo, as I said, Mr. President, the fight to protect the right to life for all Americans continues.\n\n\u201cAnd I and my Republican colleagues will continue to do everything we can here in Congress to support moms and to protect babies.\n\n\u201c\u2018We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.\u2019\n\n\u201cMay the day soon come when we fully live up to that creed.\u201d", 1, "2026-06-25T06:30:03Z", "2026-06-25T06:31:21Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-marks-fourth-anniversary-of-supreme-courts-dobbs-decision/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9366620797663927, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}