[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 4, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H4953]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION BAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in an intent to correct the 
record, in the debate that we just finished, H.R. 760, I was taken to 
task of being wrong for a proposition that I raised on this floor.
  Let me correct the record and say I was not wrong, I was right. This 
partial-birth abortion bill, H.R. 760, is unconstitutional for the same 
two reasons that the Supreme Court found other statutes attempting to 
ban partial-birth abortions unconstitutional.
  First, H.R. 760 lacks a health exception which the Supreme Court 
unequivocally said was a fatal flaw in any restriction on abortion.
  Second, the nonmedical term partial-birth abortion is overly broad 
and would include a ban of safe previability abortions. Banning the 
safest abortion option imposes an undue burden on a woman's ability to 
choose, and the life of the mother and the health of the mother, and 
the mother's ability to give birth in the future.
  Finally, let me say this: We want to save lives, H.R. 760 does not.

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