Bill Clinton: “Good afternoon, I have just met with five courageous women and their families, and I want to thank the Lines, the…”

“Good afternoon, I have just met with five courageous women and their families, and I want to thank the Lines, the Stellas, the Watts, the Costellos, and the Ades all for meeting with me. They had to make a potentially life-saving, certainly health-saving, but still tragic decision to have the kind of abortion procedure that would be banned by H.R. 1833. They represent a small but extremely vulnerable group of women and families in this country, just a few hundred a year. Believe it or not, they represent different religious faiths, different political parties, different views on the question of abortion. They just have one thing in common: They all desperately wanted their children. They didn't want abortions. They made agonizing decisions only when it became clear that their babies would not survive, their own lives, their health, and in some cases their capacity to have children in the future were in danger. No one can tell the story better than them, and I want to call on one of them. But before I do, I want to say that this country is deeply indebted to them for being willing to speak out and to talk about the real facts, not the emo- tional arguments that, unfortunately, carried the day on this case. So I'd like to ask Mary-Dorothy Line to come up here and introduce herself and say whatever she'd like to say about why we're all here today. [Mary-Dorothy Line described the circumstances and complications of her pregnancy which made the procedure medically necessary, saying that while she hoped that the same thing would not happen to anyone else, a safe medical option was needed. She thanked the President for understanding that the issue was women's health, not abortion, and for vetoing the legislation.]”