[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 42 (Thursday, March 13, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H2372]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HOBBY LOBBY V. SEBELIUS

  (Ms. SLAUGHTER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court will soon hear oral 
arguments in the case commonly referred to as Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius. 
The outcome of this case will determine whether or not a for-profit 
company has the right to limit a female employee's access to health 
care under the guise of religious freedom.
  Already the Supreme Court has wrongly declared that corporations have 
a right to ``freedom of speech,'' as determined in the case of Citizens 
United. In just a few short years, this ruling has led to a flood of 
undisclosed money into our elections and corrupted our political 
system. Corporations' latest attempts to secure the constitutionally-
protected rights of citizens is equally as dangerous.
  Only a living, breathing woman should have the right to decide how 
and when she wants to have a family. Regardless of her decision, that 
choice belongs to her and not to the corporation for which she works.
  Millions of women depend upon birth control pills for reasons beyond 
preventing unintended pregnancies, including a 13-year-old girl in my 
district, who would rather be in her classroom learning but who spends 
lots of time in a doctor's office trying to control uncontrollable 
bleeding. Yet, through no fault of her own, she finds herself at her 
doctor's office often, and then just recently had to have a blood 
transfusion.
  This young woman relies upon birth control medication to control her 
bleeding, a medication that her family can only afford because her 
mother's access to contraceptive care is not violated by her employer.
  If the Supreme Court once again interprets our Federal law to grant 
citizen freedoms to a corporation, it will directly threaten the rights 
of this young girl and millions of women around the country. We cannot 
allow that to happen.

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