Steven Kuykendall: “in the last few days, my office has been flooded with calls asking me to support the ban on partial birth abortions. If…”

“in the last few days, my office has been flooded with calls asking me to support the ban on partial birth abortions. If all we were doing today was prohibiting late term abortions, I could support that vote, even as a strongly pro-choice Representative. The calls have prompted me to evaluate my own history with this issue and to carefully review the language of the legislation before us. Although I have voted against similar legislation in the past, I stated during my 1998 campaign that I would support a ban on late-term abortions except in instances in which the life of the mother was endangered by continuing the pregnancy. This position represents a departure from my previous voting history, but a conscious change that I can accept. The authors of H.R. 3660 would have all of us believe that that is exactly what we are voting on today. However, after reading the language of the bill, I find that I cannot support this bill. Unlike any other legislation that I have been asked to consider, this legislation permits doctors to be sent to jail for up to 2 years, simply for making a medical decision. There are other enforcement tools available to discourage the use of this procedure without authorizing imprisonment. Those tools include substantial civil fines and the permanent suspension of a physician's medical license. Both of these are strong incentives; we do not need to criminalize medical judgements.”