David Obey: “I frankly am of a split mind on this issue. I am fairly old fashioned, and I come from a part of the country where these…”

“I frankly am of a split mind on this issue. I am fairly old fashioned, and I come from a part of the country where these kinds of subjects are not discussed much in public, and I frankly get uneasy when I walk into a lot of places and see condoms and other devices being made available on a wholesale basis. I am very uncomfortable about that. But I think it is also a complicated question. I have concerns about the motion of the gentleman from Oklahoma and actually there are a number of reasons. First of all, because I am not necessarily convinced that the best approach in my city, my hometown would be the best approach in New York or San Francisco or Lexington, Kentucky or other communities or vice versa. And I think one of the problems with the Coburn motion is that it gets in the way of local people being able to decide how they want to handle a very sensitive problem. Secondly, I think you do have conflicting views about which approach actually saves the most lives and prevents the most abortions. And I suspect that what the answer is to that question again depends on the community morals and practices and culture. And so while I understand those who say that they find issues like this distasteful and sometimes they get, in fact, angry. Mr. Speaker, I really wonder whether it is wise for the Congress to tell local school districts that one approach is better than another.”