Political Quotes

“I would like to thank my colleague from New York (Mr. Donovan) for yielding and for his work on this amendment, which I am proud to cosponsor. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this amendment is simple: increase access to substance abuse treatment for pregnant women. We accomplish this by making clear that States receiving grants from an existing Department of Justice program may use them to provide family-based treatment. Currently, nonviolent mothers and fathers have access to family- and community-based substance abuse treatment options that help keep their families together, and that should be true for expectant mothers as well. Our amendment would help provide this access to the 60 pregnant women in Ohio State prisons last month and countless others across the country, all of whom are ineligible for it today. I have met with doctors, nurses, hospitals, law enforcement, and treatment professionals, and have seen firsthand the devastating effects that heroin and opioid abuse have inflicted on pregnant women and newborns in my own southwest Ohio community. In December of 2013, I toured Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek, Ohio, and discussed the concerning trend the hospital was observing: increasing numbers of infants born addicted to opiates. At the Dayton Children's Hospital neonatal intensive care unit, I witnessed the hardship that heroin and opioid addiction inflicts on both women and their babies.…”