[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23923]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION BAN ACT OF 2003

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, today the House will vote on a historic 
bill, the conference report on the partial-birth abortion ban. As a 
physician who has delivered over 3,000 babies, I am personally opposed 
to abortion, but in particular the only reason to select the partial-
birth abortion procedure is to ensure that the baby is dead when 
delivered. As a physician, I recognize that serious complications can 
occur during the last trimester of pregnancy. However, if the mother's 
health dictates that the pregnancy must be concluded and a normal birth 
is not possible, the baby may be delivered by C-section. Whether the 
infant lives or dies depends upon the severity of the medical 
complications and the degree of prematurity, but that outcome is 
dictated by the disease process itself. The fate of the infant during 
the partial-birth abortion procedure is predetermined by the nature of 
the procedure performed and is uniformly fatal.
  In 1995, a 12-doctor panel representing the American Medical 
Association recommended banning partial-birth abortion, referring to it 
as, and I quote, basically repulsive, close quote. I agree with the 
AMA's panel. The procedure is repulsive and after today will be 
illegal.

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