Melvin Watt: “I regret that the sponsor of this legislation, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) left the floor, because I…”

“I regret that the sponsor of this legislation, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) left the floor, because I have the greatest amount of respect for her and I am sure that her intentions in offering this legislation are honorable and with good intentions. This is a very difficult issue. Some folks tried to make it an issue on whether you support abortion or do not support abortion, or whether you support choice or do not support choice. But there are some very, very complicated issues involved in this legislation, and I regret that the Committee on Rules did not make some proposed amendments in order that would have allowed us to address those issues and vote them up or down. I would like to spend a few minutes talking about some of those issues, if I might. I said in the debate on the rule that this is unprecedented legislation. I believe it is. The sponsors of this legislation, the proponents of this legislation, have said that this is about trying to protect those 22 States that have parental consent legislation in their States. Well, what about the 28 States who do not have parental consent statutes in their State?”