Sheila Jackson Lee: “I guess the opportunity to serve in the United States Congress with a little over 10,000 Members over the decades, and…”

“I guess the opportunity to serve in the United States Congress with a little over 10,000 Members over the decades, and for the years of service that I have been given this privilege, and at the decision of my constituents allows me to look over the landscape of the journey that we have taken. I was here when medical procedures for parents who wanted nothing more than a healthy baby were then characterized as a criminal act and called partial-birth abortion when a mother had to make a decision with her God, her doctor, and her family. I remember the hearings in the Judiciary Committee where mothers were crying because of the medical procedure that was necessary to save their life. We have now come full circle, and the extremists want to again demonize parents who are desperate--desperate for a healthy child. I have seen this before: extremist views criminalizing a medical choice that has to be made, criminalizing abortion from east to west and north to south. I will not have it. I know that this is a most personal decision and one that families do not want to make. But as a person of faith, I believe it should be that woman, that family, that God, and that doctor. So, unfortunately, today we will have the effort to criminalize these actions of doctors. You see, Mr.…”