Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank the gentlelady for yielding. And I think, Mr. Speaker, in the next several days and weeks you're going to see…”

“I thank the gentlelady for yielding. And I think, Mr. Speaker, in the next several days and weeks you're going to see people come forward to speak up for the silent majority in this controversy about contraception and what institutions should and should not provide. Whoever has been a silent majority, today it is the women of America, particularly women who may happen to work for Catholic hospitals, for a Catholic university as I did, for example, when as a Protestant I worked as a tenured professor of law at Georgetown University here in Washington, DC. The Catholic Church has long accepted the laws against discrimination except as to the Church itself and the Church's own activities. And so you'll find in a Catholic hospital or Catholic university you must hire people regardless of their race or religion and the like. Now, the Church seems to be seeking a different rule on how you accommodate religion. We have accommodated the Catholic Church when it comes to hiring its own employees, for example. And the administration has accommodated the Catholic Church when it comes to the provision of contraceptives for its own church employees. However, there are hundreds of thousands of women and men who work for hospitals, for universities, and other institutions that hold themselves out as nondiscriminatory and as accepting all people.…”