Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)
Rep. Pressley rallied to support Medicaid patients – especially Black, brown, indigenous, disabled and queer folks – who are most at risk of losing their access to essential health care services, including cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing and treatment, and more.
Congresswoman Pressley also shared a deeply personal story about her experience receiving health care from Planned Parenthood as a college student, and underscored the critical role of Planned Parenthood in providing essential, routine healthcare.
A full transcript of the Congresswoman’s remarks, as delivered, is available below and the full video is available here.
Transcript: Pressley, Planned Parenthood Rally for Medicaid Patients Outside Supreme Court
U.S. Supreme Court
April 1, 2025
Well hello there! Wow, you all look beautiful! My movement family.
You know the energy here reminds me of the energy of every movement throughout history, from Seneca Falls to Selma to Stonewall.
You are all here, freedom fighters, recognizing that we are one human family, and our freedom and our destinies are tied.
I’m here because I pride myself on being a justice seeker, and I’m here as a woman of faith. My faith requires me to be here in this moment. So it’s wonderful to be here with this broad and diverse coalition of reproductive justice advocates.
Let me make it plain: the attacks on our health care, our basic freedoms, and our bodily autonomy are tied. No matter who you are, where you live, or who you love, you should be able to get the health care you need, when you need it, in your home community.
But today, Republicans, these men and these complicit women, their anti-abortion allies in the courts want to rip away that fundamental freedom and continue their unprecedented assault on health care.
We are witnessing the most sweeping attempt yet to dismantle Medicaid. Republicans are attacking Medicaid in every branch of government and at every level of government, and they would love for us to stop fighting.
You know, that’s why they’re so anti-woke, because they want people to be asleep. They want people to be ignorant, they want people to be indifferent. They want people to be inactive.
But we will keep fighting, because we refuse to accept their harmful agenda as an inevitability and let them strip health care away from millions of people, especially those that are Black, brown, Indigenous, disabled and queer.
We will not back down. The law is on our side. Let me say that again for the people in the back, to the left and to the right: the law is on our side. The law is on our side. The law is on our side, and so too is the power of the people.
Now, again, as a Congresswoman, let me just do that quick history lesson. Congress codified the right of every patient with Medicaid coverage to have free choice of their health care provider. Your doctor, your choice. Your doctor, your choice. Your doctor, your choice.
This is the same freedom that everyone else has with their private coverage. So if you make less money, or you have a disability, or you receive your care through Medicaid, you shouldn’t be denied the right to choose your health care provider.
What they want is a scenario that would not only further entrench disparities in health care, but flat out deny people the care they need.
Y’all, people will get sicker, people will die, and we won’t stand for it.
Today, with our nation at a critical inflection point, we’re here to stand on the side of freedom.
The freedom to choose when, how and whether, to grow your family.
The freedom to choose whe[re] you get your health care.
The freedom to choose.
As a young college student myself, I exercised that freedom. I was in a city where I had no family, no community, experiencing debilitating pain. I thought I was dying. I went to Planned Parenthood. Mind you, I was afraid and alone, and had to navigate treacherous terrain, even to access the doors, while people screamed at me, threatened me. But because of the dedicated workers at Planned Parenthood, what I found out that day is that I was not dying, but I was diagnosed with a number of uterine fibroids.
To every worker at Planned Parenthood that has met someone where they are as they did with me, in a moment of pain, and fear, and feeling alone, I stand with you. This Congresswoman loves you, sees you, and values your essential labor. When you could have taken your talents anywhere else, you chose to work at Planned Parenthood because you recognize that our greatest wealth as a nation is the health of our people.
I’m for Planned Parenthood because they’re for care, no matter what.
I am so very proud to stand here before you as the Co-Chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, and I’m proud that our caucus stood together with every Senate Democrat and nearly 200 House Democrats to make our collective voices heard in this case, to tell the courts that we’re watching you.
We will be watching if they let Medicaid’s integrity be illegally undermined.
We will be watching if they rob Medicaid patients in South Carolina and across our country of the quality, compassionate care that Planned Parenthood has long provided them.
Make no mistake, our most vulnerable and marginalized communities will suffer the most if the Supreme Court doesn’t stand with the people.
The entire case is an unlawful, unjust, and cruel assault on Black women and people of color. It is an assault on low-income folks, the LGBTQIA community, those in rural and underserved communities — all people who are most likely to get their routine health care through their state and federal Medicaid programs.
Our fundamental right to health care should not be up for debate. Stop playing politics with our lives!
You do not get to pick and choose when it comes to our health care.
And we won’t back down.