John Hostettler: “while I am not an attorney, it is my understanding that the perfect defense for a charge of libel is the truth. We have…”

“while I am not an attorney, it is my understanding that the perfect defense for a charge of libel is the truth. We have heard no discussions today about the substance of the descriptions in the committee report, and that is because the descriptions of the effects of the amendments in the committee report were accurate. Contrast that with the dissenting views the minority attached to the committee report. For example, the minority views state that the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act is ``overtly hostile to families.'' The minority dissenting views in the committee report also describe the legislation as ``anti-physician and anti-family.'' Now, 270 Members of the House voted for legislation that the minority views stated was ``overtly hostile to families.'' Fifty-four Members of the other side of the aisle, the Democrat Party, voted for that bill. Surely there is no comparison between stating that broadly supported legislation, designed to protect parental rights and the health and safety of young women, is ``overtly hostile to families'' and accurately describing the consequences of poorly drafted amendments to the legislation. Further, the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) who we heard from earlier in her press release last week referred to a conspiracy to ``falsely rewrite the intent of an amendment.'' First, there was no rewriting.…”