[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 138 (Thursday, September 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1718]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1996

                                 ______


                               speech of

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday August 3, 1995

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2127) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human 
     Services, and Education, and related agencies, for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 1996, and for other purposes:

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Kolbe amendment to 
restore the requirement of current law that a State must pay for 
abortions resulting from rape or incest for women who are eligible 
under the State Medicaid Program.
  We are dealing with a few simple facts here. Abortion is a legal 
medical procedure in this country. Rape and incest are illegal crimes 
in this country. The involuntary pregnancy resulting from one of these 
crimes is a terrible burden for the victim. It is wrong to make her 
plight more burdensome and more difficult by keeping her from the 
medical services that she decides she needs.
  Under the bill sent to this House by the Appropriations Committee, 
the victim of the crime of rape and the victim of the crime of incest 
are punished. If they are poor--and that is what women eligible for 
Medicaid are--and they cannot afford to pay out of their own pockets 
for an abortion, their access to this legal medical procedure is 
eliminated.
  In the name of morality, the Members of this House are substituting 
their judgment for the judgment of the unfortunate women who have been 
the victims of these unspeakable crimes. In denying her the choice of 
an abortion, this bill assaults these women a second time, and 
compounds the agony they already face.
  Women who are the victims of rape or incest have been harmed enough 
by their criminal assailants. We should not be party to compounding 
that harm.
  I urge Members to do the only humane thing: vote for the Kolbe 
amendment; retain the requirements of the current law.


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