Political Quotes

“very quickly, I will hit this head-on the best that I know how. That if you are saying here today that Roe v. Wade is a ``get out of jail free'' card for criminals who assault pregnant women and destroy their unborn children, you are not reading the same ruling that I am reading. Roe v. Wade never said that third-party criminals have open season on unborn children. Roe v. Wade said that women can terminate their own pregnancy in certain conditions in the first trimester. The Supreme Court has not said you cannot pass a statute holding criminals liable for attacking pregnant women. For 29 years, California, the gentlewoman's home State, has had a statute that makes it a crime for a third-party criminal to kill a nonviable, in medical terms, fetus and there are people sitting in California in jail right now, and all over this country in States that have these statutes, and they are not going to get out of jail because of Roe v. Wade. They are serving their time because the statute that sent them to jail is constitutional. That is why they are in jail and they are not going to get out. Mr. Chairman, we have the authority if we so choose to make it a Federal offense to attack a pregnant woman and destroy her unborn child and to charge her separately.”