Barbara Boxer: “I say to my colleagues, there is no health exception in this bill at all, which not only makes it unconstitutional, but…”

“I say to my colleagues, there is no health exception in this bill at all, which not only makes it unconstitutional, but which puts women in harm's way. And the life exception in the bill is very narrowly drawn. It is not the usual Henry Hyde language, the first version of his language or even the second. So it becomes very difficult for a physician to act to save the mother's life. If the President would have signed this bill, he would have been putting a woman's health and her life at risk. So I think he did the right thing to listen to the 39,000 OB/GYNs whose job it is to bring babies into the world. They oppose this bill very strongly. They call it, and I am quoting, ``dangerous.'' Proponents of this bill argue that it would prohibit a specific procedure. Many of the women who have had this procedure have been here these last few days. They have been visiting us. They were looking in our eyes. They were telling us that they believe very strongly, and their families believe, that without this procedure they could have died. They could have been made infertile. Those women look in our eyes and tell us how desperately they wanted their babies.”