Janice Schakowsky: “as a woman, a mother and grandmother of girls, I am deeply and personally offended by this legislation. It implies that…”

“as a woman, a mother and grandmother of girls, I am deeply and personally offended by this legislation. It implies that American women just have to be stopped from frivolously deciding to terminate a pregnancy just days or weeks before delivery. It has been stated on this floor that these pregnant women have not explored all of the medical and surgical options to save their babies or protect their own lives, and it takes politicians to stop them. Mr. Speaker, the truth is, the women who have late abortions are forced to end wanted pregnancies, either because the baby will surely die, like Kim and Barry Koster's baby that had no brain, or the women will seriously jeopardize their own life and health. Women are portrayed as irresponsible baby killers when in fact it is the sponsors of this bill who show utter disregard for the life and health of women. President Clinton, in vetoing one of the former versions of this bill said quote, for these women, this was not about choice, not about deciding against having a child, these babies were certain to perish during or shortly after birth, and the only question was how much grave damage was going to be done to the women. This bill implies that the current law allows women to have abortions up to the last minute before delivery, but that is not true. Despite all of the rhetoric to the contrary, Roe v. Wade strictly limits abortions after viability, and the Hoyer-Greenwood alternative would have made that even clearer.”