Alan Grayson: “I would like to state at the outset of offering this particular perfecting amendment that I really wish that this…”

“I would like to state at the outset of offering this particular perfecting amendment that I really wish that this section 202 of this bill located on page 54 didn't appear in it. It reads as follows: None of the funds appropriated by this title shall be available to pay for an abortion, except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term, or in the case of rape. Again, I disagree with this section of the bill and its limiting principle, but I feel that we should, at the very least, perfect it in the manner that also includes the words ``or incest.'' In short, there is an allowance here for abortions in the case of endangering the mother, and there is an allowance in the case of rape, but somehow or other this bill forbids abortions in the case of incest. Throughout the U.S. Code, whether it be in 10 U.S.C. 1093 pertaining to abortions for armed services personnel, 42 U.S.C. 1397ee or jj, dealing with exceptions to abortion limitations within the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, or 42 U.S.C. 18023, a section containing provisions of the Affordable Care Act, Federal law is clear: abortion exceptions consistently include protections to the life of the mother in cases of rape and cases of incest. Were one to examine comprehensively the statutes and regulations of this Nation, there are numerous similar occasions referred to colloquially as the Hyde Amendment.…”