Pete Stark: “I rise today to oppose H.R. 3660, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Make no mistake about it, this is a political vote…”

“I rise today to oppose H.R. 3660, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Make no mistake about it, this is a political vote and a political debate--a debate fraught with inflammatory rhetoric and distorted facts. The majority knows that the President will veto this bill and are using it as a political football to score points with certain segments of society. Since we are here, I would like to get the facts straight about this issue. There is no medical procedure called a ``partial birth abortion''--that is a political term made by opponents of choice to distort the issue. There is a procedure called ``intact D & E'' that is used in cases of terrible family tragedy. These are catastrophic pregnancies, when the fetus has a horrible abnormality, or the pregnancy seriously threatens the mother's life or health. This bill threatens doctors with fines and imprisonment, and prevents not a single teen pregnancy. The vote to pass this bill is a blatant attempt to shelter the hypocrisy of the abortion debate--that the strongest opponents of the right to choose also oppose programs promoting comprehensive sex education and birth control, which actually reduce unintended pregnancies. If they want to prevent abortion, they should improve access to contraception by increasing funding for title X and contraceptive research, and improving access to insurance coverage of contraception.”