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McCollum Remarks at Women's March Minnesota

January 21, 2017

Congresswoman Betty McCollum (DFL-Minn.) delivered remarks to an estimated 60,000 attendees at Saturday’s Women’s March Minnesota in St. Paul:

“Hello Minnesota! Thank you for being here. Now is the time for solidarity! Now is the time for sisters of all ages from all places to stand together.

“For our daughters, our mothers, our sisters, and for ourselves, we must stand together because there are politicians in Washington and in St. Paul who want to take our rights away from us.

“My name is Betty McCollum. In the United States House of Representatives, I am Minnesota’s only pro-choice, pro-human rights, pro-civil rights, pro-Obamacare, pro-voting rights, and pro-workers rights Congresswoman!

“Women are marching and rallying today across the country to send a loud, clear message to President Trump and his right-wing Congress: Keep your hands off our bodies! Keep your hands off our healthcare! Keep your hands off Planned Parenthood! Keep your backwards agenda out of workplaces, out of our schools, and out of our communities.

“To all my sisters – white and black; Christian, Muslim and Jewish; Native American, Latina, and Asian-American; gay and straight; mother, grandmother and granddaughter; whomever we are, we must stand together, we must stay organized together, we must fight for all of our rights – together, and we must not quit.

“Our values, our rights, and the laws that protect us are under attack. I know this is true because the people I work with are the ones attacking us.

“This is battle we must win! We need to stand together and organize together. We need to raise our voices and use our votes to protect our rights.

“And to those politicians, businesses, and organizations that want to deny women access to healthcare, that want to deny women equal pay for equal work, or treat any of our sisters as second class citizens – then we must focus our energy, take action, and make our opponents pay a price.

“Sisters and brothers, yesterday I was on the platform in front of the U.S. Capitol only a few feet away from the president when he was sworn in. Let me tell you and let me say this to Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence as well, there is no honeymoon, there is no grace period!

“We are mobilized in Minnesota and in cities and towns all across America! We are not going to roll over and allow Donald Trump to take away our rights, we are going to fight to defend our rights! We are in a fight, we will not back down, and we will not be stopped.

“Thank you, sisters and brothers! This is America, and we’ve got to fight for our rights!”

Issues:Women