[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 11 (Wednesday, January 25, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E74]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ROE V. WADE ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 25, 2012

  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark an 
incredible milestone. Thirty-nine years ago from this past Sunday, the 
Supreme Court of the United States guaranteed the women of this country 
our right to privacy. In handing down the landmark Roe v. Wade 
decision, the justices of the Supreme Court affirmed the right for 
American women to keep medical decisions between women and their 
doctors.
  This right was not easily won, and it has not come without four 
decades of fighting to protect it. And yet today, some are still trying 
to strip women of this right.
  Many of those who seek to overturn Roe claim to be protecting life--
but it's no secret that making abortion illegal won't end the problem 
of unplanned pregnancies in this country.
  In fact, legal abortion keeps women more safe. In 1965, almost 20 
percent of all maternal deaths were due to illegal abortion--and that's 
only what was reported.
  So in looking ahead for 2012, I invite my anti-choice colleagues to 
consider this: instead of working against us by voting to defund title 
X programs for women who need them most, work with us in a shared goal 
of making abortion safe, legal, and rare. That is what the pro-choice 
movement stands for.
  I was 6 years old when Roe v. Wade was handed down, and never in my 
life have I felt that my rights were threatened like I do now.
  Last year alone, 69 laws containing 92 anti-abortion provisions were 
enacted in 24 states--and my home State of Florida was unfortunately 
responsible for several of them.
  But the problem isn't only at the State level--last year, the 
Republican majority in the House took up a slew of bills that tried to 
do everything from defund Planned Parenthood, a crucial title X 
provider in our country, to redefine rape to say that if the victim was 
mentally unable to consent, then it didn't really count as forcible 
rape.
  These bills are insulting and dangerous to women's health and 
wellbeing, something that we as Members of Congress should be working 
together to protect.
  In this spirit, I remind my anti-choice colleagues that the concern 
for human life and dignity cannot end at birth. So, it is my sincere 
hope that in the budget bills we will soon take up, all Members work to 
pass a budget that holds women and children harmless, placing important 
programs like title X family planning, Head Start, and Maternal and 
Child Block Grants at the top of the priority list. In these trying 
financial times, we cannot afford to balance our budget on the backs of 
women and children.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, I urge my colleagues to note this 
anniversary with the gravity it deserves, as well as the energy it will 
require to work to ensure that next year at this time, we are once 
again commemorating this crucial right as protected by the Supreme 
Court, and not lamenting yet another year in which this right has been 
assailed. Women's lives depend on it!

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