Political Quotes

“A 15-year-old pregnant girl, perhaps with no parents to care for her, perhaps even worse, parents that harm her, what crime has she committed? Why do we seek to punish her more by making a criminal out of someone that would try to help that girl? She is already a victim, and this bill would victimize her a second time. I understand the passion of my colleagues, and the previous speaker in particular, in their opposition to abortion. But what purpose do we serve by forcing an exquisitely lonely young girl to go it alone? What is the political gain that my colleagues see in forcing her into an unsafe abortion? What crime has she committed that is so egregious that she would then be forced to turn away or not turn to someone that might help her? As we posture about our love and respect for America's parents, I would hope in our zeal we are tempered a little bit by love and understanding for the young victims that we also represent. I do not ask my colleagues, any of my colleagues, who oppose a woman's right to choose to abandon their principles. But I do wish that supporters of this measure would not use the plight of the most helpless to make their points. I dare say that no one who speaks today and perhaps no one in this Chamber wants there to be even a single abortion. But this bill, all it does is make sure that someone who is in that unfortunate position is forced to be in that position all alone.”