Frank Lautenberg: “the one thing that mystifies me about some of the actions that we take here is, why is it that a few want to control the…”

“the one thing that mystifies me about some of the actions that we take here is, why is it that a few want to control the thoughts for so many? It is an assault on one's human rights, one's civil rights. It is inappropriate to be introducing this kind of legislation that has to deal with things other than the funding issue, and to intrude on people's private lives. To suggest that the way to deal appropriately with the sparseness of funds is to take away people's right to learn as part of a medical education, and that they might lose their Federal funding--not might, but will--it is outrageous. God was good to me yesterday. My oldest daughter delivered a beautiful baby boy, and I was in that hospital on the maternity ward, and I was looking around, and I thought, thank goodness, they have the facilities that they have to be able to bring new life into being. I thought about those poor women who, at the same time, who may be distressed by the fact that there was a conception. It was bizarre, but in the news today was a woman who was 10 years comatose, was raped by someone in the institution she was in, and she delivered a child. Is that not ridiculous that we would object to having someone learn the abortion technique, so that in the case of a request or a need, that it is unavailable? I think this is mischievous, I think it is unfair, and I think that the American people ought to rise up and say: Listen, enough of that stuff.”