Political Quotes

“I rise today opposing H.R. 760 and supporting the substitute. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my opposition to H.R. 760, the Partial Birth Abortion Ban of 2003. This is always an ugly and difficult debate. I am not comfortable with the notion of a pregnancy being terminated when a woman is in the last trimester. I doubt that many people believe a woman who is eight months pregnant should be able to just change her mind and terminate the pregnancy. And I really don't believe that that situation happens. But there are times when late term abortions are necessary to protect the life and health of the mother, or to save the fetus from undue pain and suffering due to irreversible birth defects. In those cases, we should make sure that women have access to safe, appropriate medical procedures. Unfortunately, the legislation we are considering today is almost identical to a Nebraska law that the Supreme Court found unconstitutional. In Stenberg v. Carhart, the Court found that the Nebraska law outlaws several procedures, including the safest and most commonly used method for performing pre-viability second trimester abortions. Second, the Court ruled that any ban on methods of abortion must provide an exception for women's health, and also struck down the Nebraska law for failing to include such an exception. H.R. 760 continues to flout the Supreme Court's rulings by continuing to ban certain procedures, and failing to protect the life of the mother.”