On the recordOctober 13, 2011
I thank the gentlelady from Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I think this bill goes to the farthest extreme in trying to take women down not just a peg but take them in shackles to some cave somewhere. Twenty-five years ago, this body passed EMTALA, a bill that basically said anyone that shows up at an emergency room would access health care, no questions asked. Now, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to amend that law and basically say, Oh, except for a woman who is in need of an abortion, or except for a woman who's bleeding to death who happens to be pregnant, or except for a woman who is miscarrying. Basically, what this bill would do is say that any hospital could decline to provide services to one class of people in this country. And that one class of people is pregnant women. Let me tell you something. My story is pretty well known now. I was pregnant. I was miscarrying. I was bleeding. If I had to go from one hospital to the next trying to find one emergency room that would take me in, who knows if I would even be here today. What my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are attempting to do is misogynist. It is absolutely misogynist. The time has come for us to stop taking up this issue over and over again this year and do something that the American people really care about. They want jobs. They want to be able to hold on to their homes. They want some mortgage relief. And what do we do?…
