Barbara Kennelly: “so often when we write legislation in this body it is complex, and is made up of provisions that are so arcane our…”

“so often when we write legislation in this body it is complex, and is made up of provisions that are so arcane our explanations when we go home are really convoluted. But in this case I can go home and say I am voting for Pelosi-Greenwood for exactly four words as a reason: Family planning saves lives. It frees women from the risk of disease and then death from pregnancies when their bodies just cannot take one more pregnancy. It frees children from the dire consequences of losing that parent in an undeveloped region. It absolutely frees struggling nations to devote more of their resources to improving the lot of their people. That is what this is all about. Far from promoting abortion, this amendment explicitly continues current United States law which prohibits this use of our funds. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Greenwood] for being so eloquent in his explanation of where we are today, and what the Pelosi amendment does to the Smith amendment. This whole debate disappoints me so profoundly. For years in this country the best of our people in our communities, Republicans and Democrats, all were for family planning. We put it now in the abyss of the litmus test on this very difficult debate. I thank those who brought us to this point, and vote, please, for the Pelosi amendment.”