[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 135 (Thursday, October 1, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H9190-H9191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         WOMEN'S CONTRACEPTION

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, a bunch of fellows from this body are 
running around the Treasury, Postal conference committee trying to get 
into the contraception business, women's contraception business, that 
is. But women's contraception is nobody's business but theirs. Yet 
there is stealth action in this House to overturn a bill that passed 
both houses, that contraception be treated like other prescriptions in

[[Page H9191]]

Federal health plans. Passed unanimously in the Senate, passed twice in 
the House, we must not tolerate Soviet-style reversals of 
noncontroversial provisions.
  I am outraged at a substitute that would allow only the diaphragm to 
be required in plans. Women need options. Some do not work. Some make 
us sick. There is no more sensitive issue for women than contraception. 
The bipartisan Women's Caucus supports the Lowey provision, and so do 
the majority of the House, the majority of the Senate and the majority 
of the American people.

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