Patricia Schroeder: “today what I wanted to talk about was the fact that the gentleman from Connecticut, Chris Shays, and I and any number of…”

“today what I wanted to talk about was the fact that the gentleman from Connecticut, Chris Shays, and I and any number of bipartisan Members will be introducing today the Women's Right To Know Act. We feel that this is a very, very critical bill that unequivocally asserts that women are adults and that they have the right to receive information about the full range of their reproductive health choices, and the Federal Government should do nothing to either gag their medical professionals that are dealing with them or put cotton in the ears of the women and say that they are not able to hear it. As Members know, this goes right to the gag rule which right now is very shaky. President Clinton lifted the gag rule when he came into office, but this Congress has never lifted it through legislation, so what this is saying is that no government, be they Federal, State, or local, can dictate to doctors or to any medical professional what women can hear nor tell women that they cannot hear it. We introduced this bill on this very historic 23d anniversary of Roe versus Wade, which the Supreme Court upheld and has continued to uphold.”