On the recordJune 19, 2013
I come to the floor today to discuss H.R. 1797. A number of my colleagues, Senators Murray and Boxer, have been here this morning to talk about the bill that passed yesterday in the House of Representatives that would prohibit all abortions beyond 20 weeks with very, very limited exceptions. This topic is critically important to the women of Connecticut and our country, and the bill is lamentably and regrettably yet another example of legislation that feigns concern for women's health when actually it would endanger the lives and well-being of women across this great country. The bill would take decisions regarding health care away from women and their doctors and would force doctors to decide between incurring criminal penalties and helping their patients. That choice is unacceptable professionally and morally. The decision to end a pregnancy is a serious decision that a woman should make in consultation with her doctor. When those decisions are made later in a pregnancy, they are most often the result of serious health risks to the mother or the discovery that the fetus is not viable. They are the result of those risks or the discovery that a fetus is not viable. Political interference is abhorrent and unacceptable in these personal and private decisions, and it violates the constitutional right of privacy.…





