[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 3258-3259]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    WAR ON WOMEN AND WOMEN'S HEALTH

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 8, 2012

  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank Congressman 
Mike Quigley for working to organize Women's Health Wednesday, and also 
all of my colleagues of the Congressional Pro Choice Caucus, of which I 
am also a member, for standing up for women's health every single day.
  I'm here, once again, to stand against the ongoing War on Women and 
Women's Health.
  And let me just say how unfortunate it is that we continue to have to 
fight for what is and should be a basic health right and necessity for 
women. I am sure the American people would much rather have us focusing 
on ways to create jobs, especially for the long-term unemployed.
  Yet here we are again. Defending women's right to access basic health 
care services. And yes, that includes contraception.
  Much of the debate around access to contraception has centered on the 
so-called conscience clause. The ability of a religiously affiliated 
business to withhold access to contraception care for women based 
simply on an abstract moral objection.
  An objection, mind you, that not only ignores the conscience or moral 
beliefs of the women these businesses employ, but completely disregards 
the real medical needs of these women.

[[Page 3259]]

  And let me say, as I have before, that as a former devout practicing 
Catholic I fully understand and respect the Church's doctrine on 
contraception, even though I disagree with it.
  But the health care decisions a woman makes should and must be 
between her and her doctor. And as I have always said, the government 
has no place inserting itself between the medical decisions a woman 
makes with her doctor. Period.
  Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to recognize and highlight 
those women who are especially impacted by the attempts of our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle, as well as some religious 
leaders, to restrict access to vital contraception coverage.
  Those who often get lost in the debate around this issue. Although I 
believe that women's health care decisions should not continue to be 
unfairly politicized.
  We know the benefits of birth control for women and their families. 
We know how planned pregnancy and spacing children improves the quality 
of life and the outlook for the children and the whole family.
  And we know that it also improves the health of the woman.
  Often, however, we do not hear from the women for whom birth control 
may literally mean the difference between life and death.
  I'd like to share the story of a woman named Sally who is from my 
district in California. She is a working mother who could not afford to 
have more children. After numerous miscarriages, she relied on birth 
control to allow her body to heal properly before becoming pregnant 
again. After a couple of years of taking this medication, her body 
healed sufficiently to allow her to finally have a viable pregnancy.
  Another young woman from California has polycystic ovarian syndrome 
and uses birth control to regulate her hormones.
  She was prescribed the medication after her gynecologist had to 
scrape dozens of precancerous cysts from her uterus. According to her 
gynecologist, had another 6 months passed, this young woman would have 
developed full blown cancer.
  And another young woman who, after having a very difficult first 
pregnancy and being diagnosed with a serious heart condition, was told 
by her doctor that if she were to become pregnant again, it could cost 
her life and the life of her unborn child. And so she depends, in part, 
on contraception to not only to preserve her life, but to be there to 
raise her son.
  And these are just a few of the thousands of stories from women 
across the country who use contraception for many many medical reasons.
  Two years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act we are 
beginning to see true reforms in our health care system that expands 
access to vital preventative health services.
  We must protect these gains, instead of working against them.
  It is time to stop this War on Women and Women's Health Care.

                          ____________________