Janice Schakowsky: “as a new Member, I have to admit that I really did not understand until I got here how dramatically what we do here…”

“as a new Member, I have to admit that I really did not understand until I got here how dramatically what we do here affects, for better or for worse, in the most intimate ways, the lives of men and women and children every single day in all parts of the globe. We are the only superpower in this world, and our capacity right now to do good in the face of starvation and disease and poverty is so great that it makes me weep with frustration that we are doing so little. But I am truly overwhelmed by the audacity that we would use our great power to require the clinics like we saw, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood) and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee), to certify that they will not, with their own non-U.S. dollars, conduct any activity related to abortions so that they can control their own families and take care of the children that they have. It is on behalf of those men and women and children that I urge support for the motion to strike.”