Asa Hutchinson: “Of course we should be concerned about our children. I think that we are in this body. But this issue that we are…”

“Of course we should be concerned about our children. I think that we are in this body. But this issue that we are addressing today is to protect a woman who wants to carry a child all the way to term and to have that child, and that is what we speak of in the right to choose. If someone decides to have an abortion, that is protected under the Constitution. It is not inconsistent because we might be pro-life and we cannot change that, and so we look at this law as an opportunity to protect the mother's right to have a child when she makes that decision. Surely someone that believes in the right to abort a child would concede that if a woman makes a decision to carry a child to term that that decision should be respected. Then the gentleman from New York previously said, well, why pass this law because it does not cover State law and that is where most of the assaults against women occur? Well, obviously, that is true. And many of the States are addressing that. But it is important that we do what we can in this body to protect women.”