Nancy L. Johnson: “Mr. Speaker, the reality is that clinic violence has risen dramatically in the past year, with fully half of clinics…”

“Mr. Speaker, the reality is that clinic violence has risen dramatically in the past year, with fully half of clinics participating in the recent survey experiencing severe antiabortion violence. Virtually all of these clinics participating in the survey provide services that are important to women, and often are the only providers available to women without insurance. They provide birth control services, prenatal care services, menopausal treatment services, to name only a few. In order for this legislation to be invoked, there must be violence, threat of violence, or physical obstruction. Antiabortion activists who are lawfully exercising their first-amendment right to demonstrate peacefully will not be penalized by this legislation. The Supreme Court has upheld a woman's right until the point of fetal viability to have an abortion. That is her legal right. To physically dissent from this decision made by the Court by blockading a building, by preventing a woman from exercising her legal right to access to a legal medical procedure, is a violation of the law, pure and simple. My right to swing my arm ends at your nose. Democracy rests on a foundation of liberty and tolerance and respect and matters of conscience are sometimes hard as the abortion issue demonstrates, but differences honestly held, though deeply in conflict, cannot be resolved by denying the rights of others.”