[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 78 (Wednesday, May 20, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1830
                NOMINATION OF DAWN JOHNSEN--LIFE ISSUES

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the President has said we should find common 
ground on the issue of abortion, but his nomination of Dawn Johnsen to 
head up the Office of Legal Counsel is amongst the most controversial 
of his nominees.
  Johnsen, who formerly worked for NARAL and the ACLU's Reproductive 
Freedom Project has compared pregnancy to involuntary servitude. She 
has described pregnant women as ``losers in the contraceptive 
lottery.'' She criticized then Senator Clinton for claiming a need to 
keep abortions rare. Some of her positions encompass questionable legal 
arguments, including the assertion that abortion bans might undermine 
the 13th Amendment, which bans slavery.
  I quote her here: ``Statutes that curtail a woman's abortion choice 
are disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the 
13th Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide 
continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the 
State's asserted interest.''
  A quote again: ``Our position is that there is no `father' and no 
`child'--just a fetus. Any move by the courts to force a woman to have 
a child amounts to involuntary servitude.''
  I and millions of other women do not feel this way. We cherish the 
opportunity to have borne a child.

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