Patrick Kennedy: “My colleagues, the hypocrisy is incredible to me, just to hear the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Largent) talk about the…”

“My colleagues, the hypocrisy is incredible to me, just to hear the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Largent) talk about the sanctity of the human life and how any pro-choice person in this body ought to be able to vote for this bill. How in the world can they honestly say that they are for the sanctity of life and then gladly and proudly come out and say that this bill would not affect a woman's right to choose and have an abortion? I am just astounded by those who are so pure on this side of the aisle; that they get up, like the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon), who got up and was so pure about relieving our consciences of the fact that this would not, please, no one mistake the fact that this is going to undermine Roe v. Wade. It is not going to undermine Roe v. Wade. Women are still going to be able to have an abortion. That is what the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) was saying; that is what the gentleman from Oklahoma was saying. They are saying to pro-choice people like myself that we can vote for this because our constituents will still have the right to a safe, legal abortion. I mean, it is just so incongruous that the very people who are saying that they believe so much in the sanctity of life are now proposing a bill that they willingly admit does not protect the very people they think need to be protected. Now, in addition to being intellectually dishonest, this bill is a farce. It talks about the unborn victims of violence.…”