Judd Gregg: “I wish to, once again, recite what this bill is about because there has been some diversion, I am afraid, coming from…”

“I wish to, once again, recite what this bill is about because there has been some diversion, I am afraid, coming from the other side in the representations that were made. Basically, what we are dealing with is a bill that is going to try to make medicine more readily available to women who are having children. In rural parts of this country today, for example, in northern New Hampshire, if a woman is having a child, she has to drive a long way to see a doctor because there is nobody practicing obstetrics in northern New Hampshire. The baby doctors in that part of the State have found their liability premiums so exceed what they can earn that they can no longer afford to practice medicine. So women are put at risk because they have to get in their car and drive a long way on snowy roads, and it is very difficult, especially as they move into the later terms of their pregnancy. Secondly, this deals with people who walk into an emergency room, have an emergency and need to receive care.”