Louise Slaughter: “it is indeed a historic day for America, for more, I think, than most people in here realize. For the first time in the…”

“it is indeed a historic day for America, for more, I think, than most people in here realize. For the first time in the history of the Republic, the Congress of the United States is poised to outlaw a medical procedure. A majority that wants the government off everybody's backs, wants to preserve privacy, is inserting itself between a woman and her family and her physician. I wonder what is next. Perhaps they will decide that one cannot have a hysterectomy during child-bearing years, even though one may have some serious disease, or maybe we will outlaw vasectomies. That would be something we could do in here today too. And maybe we would not even like gallbladder operations. Who knows? There may be some reason we would not want to do those. All of them are pretty gruesome to describe. Mr. Speaker, yesterday was the beginning of a new fiscal year and only three of the 13 bills appropriating funds for the new year have been signed into law. Millions of Americans are unemployed. Jobs continue steadily to disappear. More families living in poverty for the second year in a row, another historic day for America that has not happened before. Tens of millions of families live without any health insurance. The Federal debt is projected to reach $5 trillion. Thousands of American troops are in Iraq working in dangerous conditions.”