Janice Schakowsky: “I thank my friend, the gentlewoman, for yielding to me. I rise in support of her point of order. The American people are…”

“I thank my friend, the gentlewoman, for yielding to me. I rise in support of her point of order. The American people are begging us to work together to create jobs to bolster the economy. Instead, we're here once again to consider legislation that endangers and attacks the right of women and is far out of the mainstream of American priorities. H.R. 358 is extreme legislation. It is another attempt to unravel the health care law while at the same time expanding anti-choice laws that will harm women's health. It would take away a woman's right to make her own decisions about her reproductive health--even with her own money. It would allow public hospitals, as you heard, to deny emergency abortion care to women in life-threatening situations. It would expand the existing conscience objection to allow providers to avoid providing contraception. We're talking now about birth control. This legislation revives a debate that has already been settled. There is no Federal funding for an abortion in the health care reform law. Legal experts have said it, independent fact-check organizations have said it. Yet Republicans continue to insist that the possibility of funding remains. {time} 1210 Federal funds are already prohibited from being used for abortions under the Hyde amendment--at the expense, I should add, of poor women, Federal employees, women of the District of Columbia, and women in the military. But this bill goes way beyond that law.…”