Sean Patrick Maloney: “Today we face yet another attempt by the new majority to roll back a woman's right to choose. Let me place this vote…”

“Today we face yet another attempt by the new majority to roll back a woman's right to choose. Let me place this vote today in perspective. Last Congress there were 52 antichoice votes on the floor of Congress. My colleagues who support this bill are barely trying to disguise their agenda. They mean to attack Roe versus Wade procedure by procedure. They mean to attack the right of women to control their decisions about their health, their families, and their life. Eliminating late-term abortion is just their first step toward sending the debate back more than 20 years back before the Supreme Court. Congress can outlaw procedures, but they can never outlaw the circumstances that lead some women to need abortions late in pregnancy. No matter how good the technology gets, tragic discoveries are sometimes made late in pregnancies, and for these women we need to have the best and safest medical care available. This new bill would have a woman die if her life were threatened by the pregnancy itself. Again instead of allowing a doctor, a woman, and her family to make this decision, they would have the woman die. This bill also allows abusive and absent husbands to sue doctors who perform procedures that are sometimes necessary in tragic situations. So now we care more about abusive husbands than we do about a woman's health. How odd that the new majority calls itself family friendly. How odd that the new majority says that they want to get government off our backs.”