On the recordJuly 31, 2012
I thank the gentleman for his leadership on this issue and so many others. I rise in opposition to the D.C. abortion act and thank my colleague from New York, Jerry Nadler, and Eleanor Holmes Norton for their very strong leadership in opposition to this bill. The callous indifference that is shown to the lives, the health, the well-being, and constitutional rights of women in this bill simply beggar description. For instance, the bill has no provision whatsoever for women who have been the victims of rape or incest, and there is no exception for a woman's health. This bill would use the awesome power of the State to compel the victim of a violent assault to bear the child of her attacker, and it would compel a minor child who has been the victim of incest to bear her sibling. How can you even begin to justify the intrusion of Federal power into such deeply painful and personal matters. This bill is an assault on decency and common sense. And it adds to the battery of weapons being used by our Republican colleagues in their war against women. A vote for this bill is a vote to show contempt for women's health, women's rights, a doctor's role in health care decisions, and the Constitution all in one fell swoop. Vote ``no'' and stay out of the doctor's office and the private lives of American women. The health and safety of women in D.C. is too important, and this is a recurring bad dream.…
