Mark Udall: “Mr. Speaker, it was not so long ago that I stood on the State Capitol steps in Denver, Colorado commemorating the 27th…”

“Mr. Speaker, it was not so long ago that I stood on the State Capitol steps in Denver, Colorado commemorating the 27th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade which guarantees a woman the constitutional right to determine her own reproductive destiny. On that day I joined Coloradans in urging them to protect this deeply personal right and urging them to continue the fight against increasing efforts to chip away at these rights for which we fought so hard. It strikes me that the House leadership today, if it was interested in good policy, not politics, would not have brought this bill to the floor. In just a few weeks, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the substantially similar Nebraska partial-birth abortion ban which makes the timing of H.R. 3660 a bit more than suspect. If the leadership were really serious about seeking bipartisan consensus in passing a law, the Committee on Rules should have permitted consideration of the Hoyer-Greenwood substitute, which has the strong backing of Members on both sides of the aisle, the promise of the President's signature, and the support of sensible policy leaders who recognize the vital importance of including health exception and a post-viability provision. Most importantly, the Hoyer-Greenwood alternative is what Americans want.”