[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 172 (Thursday, November 2, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION BAN ACT OF 1995

                                 ______


                               speech of

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 1, 1995

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1833) to 
     amend title 18, United States Code, to ban partial-birth 
     abortions:

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1833, 
which would ban late-term abortion procedures. I respect and understand 
my colleagues who may be uncomfortable voting against this legislation. 
We all hope that the number of abortions performed in this country can 
be reduced. But today's debate should be about a family's right to make 
the devastating choice to end a wanted, yet terminal pregnancy safely 
and with dignity.
  Medical misinformation has been spread freely with regard to the 
late-term abortion procedure, which was designed to minimize 
complications, pain, and trauma. The title of the legislation itself is 
fabricated and medically inaccurate.
  Proponents of this legislation would have us believe that careless 
women carrying healthy fetuses choose this procedure because they 
simply neglected to have an abortion early in the pregnancy. They have 
obviously not spoken with any woman who has had to experience the pain 
and trauma of discovering she was carrying a fetus with severe 
abnormalities, incompatible with life. These are women who wanted more 
than anything to have and love a child. For many in the tragic 
circumstance, this abortion procedure is the safest option for them and 
their hopes for future fertility.
  This bill is so extreme that it makes no exception for cases in which 
the banned procedure would be necessary to preserve a woman's health or 
even her life. In their relentless quest to ban all abortions, the 
proponents of this bill show a remarkable indifference toward women's 
lives.
  Passage of this legislation would represent the first time in our 
country that a specific medical procedure has been banned. This bill is 
unwanted and unneeded Government intrusion into medicine and into the 
family. To those who campaigned in this Congress against Government 
presence in our families, I ask how can you support a bill that 
mandates family decisions and undermines women's fertility.
  A family's decision to undergo this procedure is painful and 
personal. To limit their medical options in the face of this tragic 
circumstance is heartless.
  This bill not only limits women's childbearing and reproductive 
rights, it risks our health and our lives. This is unconscionable and 
wrong. An exception must be made for the life, health, and future 
fertility of the mother.
  This is a decision to be made by a woman, her family, her God, and 
her doctor. This is not a decision for Congress to make. I strongly 
urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 1833.

                          ____________________