[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H11462-H11463]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION BILL IS BAD LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Lofgren] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I am here to speak against H.R. 1833, the 
so-called partial birth abortion bill. As a member of the Committee on 
the Judiciary, I had heard that this bill had been introduced, and, 
like I think a lot of Americans today, I thought, what the heck is 
that? I called around trying to find out what this procedure was, but 
it turned out that I knew someone who had to utilize this procedure.
  As the Speaker knows, I have been in this body for under 11 months. I 
started in January. But for many years I was a member of the board of 
supervisors in Santa Clara County, and I served with a wonderful woman, 
Susan Wilson, who is a typical American person. She grew up in Texas. 
She was a cheerleader, she married her high school boy, and they moved 
to San Jose, where she volunteered in her Methodist church, taught 
sewing, and was a youth counselor. She had three fine sons.
  A year ago April, Susie was so excited to tell me she was going to 
have another granddaughter. Her son Bill and daughter-in-law Vickie 
were expecting their third child. It was going to be a girl. They even 
picked out the name Abigail.
  Towards Easter time they found out a very sad thing. They found out 
late, it had been missed in the early tests, that Abigail would not 
live. Abigail's brain had formed outside of her cranial cavity, and the 
brain tissue that had formed was malformed. This baby could not live. 
It was a devastating piece of news for Susie and for Vickie and Bill 
and for all of us who loved and knew that family. We cried a lot.
  But one of the things that was important to Vickie and Bill and to 
all of us was that Vickie not also die, because they have two children 
who need a mother.
  So Vickie and Bill did as much research as they could to see, could 
the child be saved? They found out regrettably, no, and they found out 
what was Vickie's risk. They found out, much to their dismay, that 
unless there was an intervention, Vickie could die. Certainly Abigail 
was going to die in any case.
  They hoped to have another child. They found if they did not do 
something, that Vickie's possibility of having another child would be 
seriously threatened. So they did engage in a late term abortion to 
save Vickie's life and to preserve the opportunity to have another 
child. They know now that little Abigail is in heaven, and they are 
grateful for that, and they know that Vickie is still alive to be the 
mother, the good mother she is, to her children.
  In the Committee on the Judiciary I heard a lot of angry rhetoric, 
but I did not hear a willingness to listen to the 

[[Page H11463]]

truth, to the real families that have real tragedies that they have to 
cope with. And I know that they do not need the guidance and help of 
the Congress of the United States on this very personal and horrible 
situation. What they need is the help and guidance of God, not the 
Congress.

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