[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 22, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  ADDRESSING NEEDS OF WORKING FAMILIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Massachusetts (Mrs. Trahan) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. TRAHAN. Mr. Speaker, we are more than 3 weeks into January, yet 
Republican leadership in this Chamber has failed to call a vote on a 
single piece of legislation to address the pressing needs of 
hardworking families. There has been nothing to ease the burden of 
grocery prices, nothing to lower the cost of prescription drugs, and 
nothing to make it easier for an American to buy a home.
  Instead, what is the priority for the Republicans this week? A vote 
on H.R. 21, the so-called Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, 
a bill that will give politicians here in Washington the power to 
monitor women's pregnancies and criminalize doctors and nurses who 
provide lifesaving care to women in need. I wish I was kidding.
  Over the next couple of days, we are going to hear Republicans get up 
here and use scare tactic after scare tactic in attempting to justify 
this vote, so let's set the record straight about what this legislation 
does.
  At first glance, its stated goal might sound reasonable: ``to 
prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper 
degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or 
attempted abortion.''
  That sounds logical on paper, but here is the reality: This situation 
almost never happens. When Texas passed a law requiring reporting on 
abortions resulting in live births, they reported zero live births over 
3 years--zero. The same was true in Oklahoma.
  What is this bill actually targeting? As we dig into H.R. 21, it 
becomes clear that this legislation purposely distorts what abortion 
care really is. It sweeps up highly complex and deeply personal medical 
situations, including those where a mother learns that her life is in 
danger because her baby has a fatal abnormality and cannot survive 
outside the womb.
  Imagine the agony of that mother, a woman who dreamed of holding her 
child, now forced to make the unthinkable decision to induce labor to 
save her own life.
  As her baby is born in agonizing pain with just minutes or hours to 
live, because no amount of medical intervention can save them, this 
bill seeks to make that horrifying situation even worse by overruling 
any decision by the mother and her doctor to provide compassionate, 
appropriate medical care.
  Instead, it threatens doctors and nurses with jail time, even if the 
only alternative is prolonging the pain, suffering, and, tragically, 
the inevitable death of the baby.
  Tell me, Mr. Speaker, how does that make sense? Why do Republican 
Members of Congress insist they know what is better for a mother and 
her baby than she and her doctor do?
  This bill is not about protecting life. It is about pushing out 
blatant lies about women's healthcare, and it is about control. It is 
about extreme Republican politicians inserting themselves into the most 
personal, private, and heartbreaking decisions a family has to make.
  The cost is that women's lives are put at risk because some here 
would rather legislate ideology than acknowledge the complexity of 
real-life medical decisions.
  To my colleagues across the aisle, instead of advancing a dangerous, 
divisive bill that exploits women's health for political gain, let's 
focus on what Americans are actually asking us to do. Let's work to 
lower costs. Let's expand access to healthcare. Let's give families the 
tools they need to thrive. The American people sent us here to do that 
work together.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the GOP's 
reproductive healthcare surveillance act.

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