[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 47 (Monday, April 15, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3235]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  VETO ON LATE TERM ABORTIONS CORRECT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hobson). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of May 12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] 
is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I take the floor to talk a bit about my 
least favorite subject, but, nevertheless, to say this is a day I 
really want to thank President Clinton and thank him very sincerely. 
Because while we as Americans all say that we are all different, but we 
are all equal, it is always hard to apply that. The President did apply 
that standard.
  President Clinton listened carefully to women who had their 
pregnancies go off track late in the pregnancy, go terribly wrong, all 
sorts of awful things happening to them, and President Clinton, hearing 
them, had the courage to then veto the so-called partial birth abortion 
bill.
  Now, the political thing to do was let it become law without signing 
it, do all sorts of things. But that would really be saying women are 
second class citizens. And why?
  I think any woman would be horrified to know that this Congress wants 
to make a law that says that if your doctor considers what he thinks or 
she thinks is best for your health, they could become a criminal. We do 
not do that for any other area. We have never done this before.
  There are probably people who could get very upset about organ 
transplants, about all sorts of things. But once we start entering the 
consultation room, where a doctor is told to take his best medical 
knowledge and push it aside because if he applies it he then is going 
to be subject to imprisonment, to fines, and to a felony, we really are 
entering a brave new world.
  There has been so much distortion about this bill. The obstetric and 
gynecology groups, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 
have stood up and firmly said ``This bill should not pass.'' The 
American Nurses Association has said the same thing. Yet we have got 
everbody all focused fetally. We have all these drawings that people 
have criticized and said doctors did not do those drawings, special 
interest groups did.
  We go through all these grizzly things. Everybody knows that under 
Roe versus Wade, in the final trimester, abortions can be denied 
anywhere in this country except for the life and health of the mother. 
So what we will do if we try to override that veto is say we are 
changing that. Now the health of the mother does not count anymore. If 
she has one pregnancy and it goes wrong and the doctor says ``This is 
the only procedure that will save your reproductive organs,'' too bad, 
she had her shot, she rolled the dice, she lost. She does not get 
another chance at parenthood, nor does her family, her husband, get 
another chance at parenthood.
  I think if we could just get some calm and reason coming into this 
body, everyone would agree with the President that this is not where 
this body belongs, practicing medicine, entering the medical 
consultation room, saying that doctors cannot think about their 
patient, the woman, they cannot apply their medical training, they 
cannot think about what is best, because if they do we will punish 
them.
  It does not say that they can impose their will; the woman, the 
family, her religious beliefs, anything allows them to say no. Never is 
this mandated. But to hear the rhetoric that this is going to allow 
abortion on demand is absolute baloney. This has nothing to do with 
abortion on demand. This has to do with what can you do, what tools are 
available, when everything goes wrong.
  If we do this, we are going to be criminalizing a tool, a tool. I 
guess people feel they can play politics with this, because so very few 
people have ever needed this tool. Fortunately, by the time most 
pregnancies get to the third trimester, they are OK and they are going 
to reach the end. But how tragic it is that we are engaging in this 
very politically charged debate, and how fortunate as an American woman 
I feel today that I have a President that is protecting my right to my 
full medical care by my doctor looking at my health without being 
criminalized. I thank the President.

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