Zoe Lofgren: “Mr. Chairman, neither Congress nor the United States Supreme Court has ever afforded legal status to an unborn child…”

“Mr. Chairman, neither Congress nor the United States Supreme Court has ever afforded legal status to an unborn child, and it is undisputed, I think, that H.R. 436 would be the first such congressional recognition. Similarly, there is no precedent in the history of the Supreme Court for such a rule. In the 26 years since Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court has never recognized an unborn child as having legal status. Outside of the abortion context, the Court has been asked only twice to uphold a State's determination that an unborn child should be afforded the protection of the law, and those two cases, Burns v. Alcala and Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, are the only two cases in the 26 years since Roe, in which the Supreme Court has been asked to recognize the 'unborn child' as having legal status. In both cases, the Supreme Court refused to do so. Those of us who are here today standing up for the personal right of a woman to determine her own reproductive future are very concerned and very opposed to this bill.”