Louise Slaughter: “It is the fundamental principle of American medical ethics and practice that health care providers should at all times…”

“It is the fundamental principle of American medical ethics and practice that health care providers should at all times deal honestly and openly with patients. Any attempt to subvert the private and sensitive physician-patient relationship should be intolerable in the United States and is an unjustified intrusion into the practices of health care providers when attempted in other countries. No one will argue with that, and yet the Hyde amendment strikes this from this bill. What happens here then is that women in poor countries die. Six hundred thousand women a year die. Abortion is not stopped. Women are simply not able to plan their families, and women die. Do we want the people to understand that the United States only cares about the doctor-patient relationship and about giving decent health care only in our own borders? Stop letting women in other countries die because we refuse to give them the information that they need. It is not about abortion.”