Nancy L. Johnson: “First of all, there are no third-term abortions of healthy babies in America. It is illegal. But it is an absolutely…”

“First of all, there are no third-term abortions of healthy babies in America. It is illegal. But it is an absolutely horrendous insult to the women of America to think that we would carry an infant through pregnancy and arbitrarily and lightly choose to take that infant's life. It is not done. Women do not do it. As one who has carried children, four children full term and experienced both the joy and the pain of childbirth, I know of no woman who is not transformed by pregnancy and does not value that life she carries within her; and the implication that we do not is so offensive to me that I am astounded that my colleagues can get up here and present the image of women, for convenience sake, choosing a late-term abortion. There are no late-term abortions of healthy babies that are legal, and this bill does not ban late-term abortions. This bill attempts to ban a specific procedure, and it does it so clumsily that it does not differentiate between the constitutionally prescribed pre-viability and post-viability procedures and, therefore, tramples on the rights of women to make choices about the responsibilities they are going to take throughout their lives. We have in America the right to make that choice early in a pregnancy. We need that choice. We deserve that choice.”