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I'm very appreciative certainly to be Invited and honored to be with you all Today at the Heritage Foundation as we Celebrate 50 years It's hard to believe Certainly an iconic institution all the Work that each of you have done the Years that we have all come together to Make a very powerful positive difference In our states and in our country You know I was thinking back about 50 Years you know this is back when bell Bottoms and uh disco reigned a few of us Remember that right But you know that's when the Heritage Foundation was was born was given life You know to come together and and to Throw out those very positive Conservative ideas To then in turn turn them into policies Which in turn became laws for all of us Thank goodness for the steadfastness of The Heritage foundations to do just that At a time when we certainly needed those Conservative ideas those principles the Foundation But The basis was to keep us on the right Pathway You know unfortunately we look back and We go well that sounds familiar right Now again Those were turbulent times in 50 years Ago
And sometimes you say well the more Things change the more things stay the Same You know kind of looking back and Thinking again about the the 70s and 50 Years ago and you look at all the 70s Fashion that we see has now come back Don't you all wish you'd saved your Clothes How about those vinyl records you know I Wish I'd kept all those they're all new We all had to recycle those vinyls you Know Abba's more popular than ever Who would have thought that right hmm But what it did at that point too it Also made us think about we really need To be grounded in our conservative Values That those principles are what we all Stand for That's what we're compassionate about And in 50 years Things have become much more turbulent Now as Dr Roberts said we live in a Society where they can't even decide What the definition of a man or woman is We didn't see that coming 50 years ago But Society needs us to be strong to be That rock To be each one of us providing that Guidance that insight for conservatism They need the tradition of freedoms Absolutely we need the rule of law And certainly we need to protect the
Inherent right of all human lives So the Heritage Foundation Has certainly done that but most Importantly it's each of you Thank you thank you for giving of Yourselves Thank you for giving of your time your Talents your efforts to make a Difference because if you aren't Standing strong we wouldn't be here Right now We wouldn't be talking about what are Our next steps how do we provide that Guidance in our states and in our Country So I'm grateful for each of you Again you are making the difference And thank you thank you for stepping up At this very very important time You know we looked back over 50 years And we've certainly had some challenges And some losses as conservatives we've All gone through we think about Obamacare Dodd-Frank The Consumer Finance protection board None were very good for our country And certainly steered far away from our Conservative values and principles But guess what we've also had some Tremendous wins Tremendous wins I want to thank all of You because the biggest win as we've all Stood together unified certainly
Heritage being a partner all the way Through The Mississippi Dobbs case we overturned Roe v Wade What an exciting time for all of us for 50 years we all waited For 50 years we stood shoulder to Shoulder For 50 years we waited for that decision To come down Which clearly said Roe was Unconstitutional That was a true affront to the Democracy Of the United States and certainly a Case where all should be returned To the states the states should make the Decisions It was significant that states be given The opportunity to make that policy you Elect your legislatures your governor And that is your voice and it should Always be given back to the States so We're so grateful that has been returned To the Mississippi Dobbs case And definitely that case was there when We got there And so there was never a question we're Appealing it we're moving forward we're Going to do whatever it takes Now We we filed our petition we waited we Waited they re-enlisted it 22 times many Of you you know you know on Fridays or When the Supreme Court Justices select
Their cases And we'd wait and Friday would come and Go and nothing but as you all did and we Did we prayed we continue to be Steadfast And on a Monday They opted to take our case up So I'll tell you I was with with some of My colleagues Coming back from a republican AG meeting Where we've been talking about what we Would continue to do as a unified front And my chief of staff called and she Said they've taken up our case the Dobbs Case has been taken up and I said on a Monday And I was in the airport so note to self Always look good in the airport right Because I did see my face immediately up On all the screens And it was looking good because that's Only taught my lesson Um but how significant for our country That day when we got that decision that The court said they would take up the Mississippi Dobbs case Wow Now This is a credit to all of you Because we did this together We all stood strong my name might have Been on that brief I was definitely in that courtroom the Day of the argument but we all did this
This is a victory for all of us Because You all stood so strong for 50 years Think about the endless hours That were spent on the sidewalks Counseling About the marches year in and year out The prayers the support The many times that you wrote letters And emails and called your legislators Year after year To talk about life To talk about the importance of life Decisions being returned to the states So it was an easy opportunity for us to Write in our brief Overturned Roe v Wade I said you can't do that I said Absolutely we can Absolutely All they can do is tell us no But it was important that we stay strong To what we all believed in And so As we were able to do that and we looked Back at all the many many lives that had Been lost for 50 years this was the Opportunity to say give that back let's Save those lives And the entire theme of our brief Our argument and what we stand strong on Today Was Empower women And promote life
That it didn't have to be either or Even though 50 years ago Said we did But this is a new battle in this new era We have some options some opportunities That we all need to address For sure You know in that 50-year narrative it Said in a row that you had to pick Either or And that certainly abortion supported Women only Well as I said we didn't believe that Narrative and we rewrote that and said No You can Empower women and you can Promote life at the same time there was No reason to pit a woman against her her Greatest human instincts Against her strongest human ties To a young baby So as we've come around and now we're Moving into the new dobbes era And I say that because the post row Kind of pulls us back right that's a Little more demeaning let's talk about It in a positive way let's call it the New Dobbs era that we all are living in Together And you know as we wrote in our brief To the justices we're all ready for the Job we ask for it we're Believers we Believe in what we can accomplish Together
We never hesitated as ask those justices Give us the role give us the options the Opportunities Because we can do it And so here we are Those justices agreed right It gives us the opportunity to be very Bold To be creative To look at ideas that we can Implement Across our communities across our states And make our country stronger We now have to find a way to match our Compassion and everyone in this room is Compassionate about life Who are compassion about how we wrap our Love and support around these mothers to Be these young mothers these children We're very compassionate about that but Now we must match that compassion with The laws And the justice For these mothers and their children And in this new era we need to think About what can we do again how do we Look at things differently we have a new Perspective which we didn't have last Year But I'm pretty sure everybody in this Room can remember where you were last June 24 2022 what an amazing day right Wow life truly changed for all of us on That day But what it did is it also gave us a new
Pathway to think again about how we can Look at these opportunities Options to step in this is not a time to Shy away this is a time for everybody in This room to step in to be supportive of Women and to protect life at the same Time So my team and I have been working on a New initiative Called the empowerment project The empowerment project And it's built on Five Pillars to really Fulfill what we think are the basic Foundations on how we can help Society Our empowerment for our women for our Children And that's so key First Make quality Child Care affordable and Accessible Again thank you Those young babies are going to be us One day right so we need to begin right Off how we can help those children Help those mothers and make it Affordable Second of all we've got to talk about Workplace flexibility have the options In our workplace Again significant to our Workforce again How we all move forward with these women And the children Enhance child support Very important as we look across our
Mothers and our children to have child Support properly given to them And here's the very hard one We've got to fix The broken foster care and adoption Systems Too many children are falling through The cracks and not put in homes very Quickly that will love and support them And lastly on the last pillars we really Do have to empower these women We've got to provide them with resources Help them get educated upskilled to have Their best day And that's on all of us to make that Happen and you know what we can do that We can do every one of these things As conservatives right these are very Conservative heartfelt opportunities for Us to all step into I'm pleased to tell you that as I've Been working with our Mississippi Legislature and they just left a few Weeks ago They understood immediately that we Needed to Pivot to this we'd won this Tremendous Dobbs case that affected not Only the state of Mississippi but our Country and and again what are next Steps what would we do And I'm very grateful to the Mississippi Legislature because just to give you a Few of the things that they passed that Are part of the empowerment project
Tax credits tax credits for adoption For foster care Pregnancy Resource Centers and child Care that's an amazing array of tax Credits to start right off the bat They enhanced our child support laws Again very significant because again We've got to stop these parents from Gaming the system at the expense of the Children Thatch is unacceptable Actually passed a new foster parents Bill of Rights and responsibility To really help and give guidance and Direction for our foster parents Pass some legislation to allow us to Streamline moving children from Foster Care into forever homes Again for the children And here's my favorite they passed the Mama program That's the Mississippi access to Maternal assistance I personally like That the mama program Um we're going to run it out of our Office it's significant it's a it's Going to be a new app for mothers to be Young mothers so they can have one stop They can get on that app and see well All these different things are available To me and I just need to click on my County my city to see what Different opportunities what resources Are there so we are so excited because
It's a public-private partnership that We'll do to have this available coming Through our office you know and and this You have to look at it you go wow this Is just conservatism at its best because We're not talking about any new money We're not talking about another Government bureaucracy program being put Into place this is taking our resources And putting those all together So that's significant so we hope that as This empowerment project is being put in Place at other states will look at it We're certainly excited about sharing What we've done in our our state again But challenging everyone to come Together because this is a call of Action and as we make these changes for These mothers these mothers to be we Create stronger families Stronger families Create stronger communities which create Stronger States Which again allow us the opportunity to Nurture to grow develop Each of our respective States Again we have to step up and realize We've been given this opportunity and we Need to all lead on this every direction That we can you know it is truly a call To action You know after the decision came down a Lot of people said oh my goodness you've All won
We did win and to God be the glory But you know what now the new chapter Start The pages are blank and all of us get to Write the narrative right Wow An incredible time for all of us in our Country to think that we've been given This option So I'm hopeful that as we move forward Again the we have the opportunity to be Creative the opportunity to look at ways That we can Empower women and promote Life That we share ideas That we make it this conservative values And principles the next is of what we do Knowing that we've been given this Option To really go out and help mothers Mothers to be and their children You know Roe v Wade is now history And we all change that together with our Compassion our steadfastness our belief That tomorrow would be a better day and Now it's here So as we do have this new Option the Future ahead of us Please continue to give of yourselves Please think differently think about What we have been charged with and how We move forward together because you Know what we are stronger as we are United
We are stronger as we stand shoulder to Shoulder as we never compromise our Integrity we never compromise our Beliefs of who we are of our Conservative and Christian values And then we always hold strong to that To thank you Thank you again for all you've done And thank you for all that you will do To make tomorrow a better day for our States and for our country And I pray that God blesses you in all That you do And all that you will continue to do Thank you so much may God bless you [Applause]
