[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12736-12737]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH FOR WOMEN OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, sometimes schoolyard bullies pick on the 
wrong kid. Anti-choice forces thought they had found a cheap way to 
make a large point against the right of women in our country to 
reproductive health and choice by picking on the District of Columbia. 
Pick a fight with the District of Columbia--after all, the District of 
Columbia doesn't have a vote even if the bill is about only the 
District of Columbia. But in the process, they picked a fight with the 
women of the United States because this is still a pro-choice Nation.
  Now, they didn't want to get women worked up in an election year, but 
they wanted a Federal imprimatur, a Federal label, so they thought that 
they could get the House to pass the bill that's coming to the floor 
today on suspension that women in the District of Columbia are not 
entitled to an abortion after 20 weeks. Mind you, everywhere else in 
the United States that right still would exist.
  And while they're at it, they say, let's penalize women by allowing 
an injunction against an abortion by these women by, any health care 
provider who has had anything to do with the woman any time in her 
life--I guess the elementary school nurse could come in to seek an 
injunction. And, of course, penalize doctors--2 years in jail

[[Page 12737]]

and a fine are possible. No health exception for the woman no matter 
her health nor fetal abnormality, rape or incest exceptions.
  One of my constituents, Professor Christy Zink, had an abortion at 21 
weeks, the earliest time her physicians would discover that she was 
carrying a fetus with half a brain. Had it been born alive, it would 
have had constant seizures. She would have had to carry that fetus to 
term.
  Sometimes, bullies pick the wrong fight. Anti-choice forces have 
threatened the leadership here, particularly Republicans, saying they 
are going to score the vote. All that did was to bring out the really 
big boys and girls--Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America--
who are going to score the bill as well.
  They've been too clever by two-thirds. It'll take two-thirds to pass 
this bill. I'm hoping they won't get that kind of supermajority.
  This is not the typical anti-home-rule bill that holds everyone else 
harmless except for D.C. residents and the D.C. government. This bill 
is a key element in a State-by-State campaign that seeks first to 
undermine and then to eliminate reproductive choice and health care for 
women across the United States.
  They've miscalculated. They have reinvigorated the pro-choice 
movement, just as they did when they infiltrated Susan G. Komen for the 
Cure and forced Komen, which later reversed itself to stop giving to 
Planned Parenthood, just as they did when they failed to defund Planned 
Parenthood, just as they did when they caused a furor by women with the 
attack on contraceptives in health insurance policies.

                              {time}  1210

  Now women see this fight against reproductive choice for what it is, 
because it has ended with the constitutional right to abortion. Anti-
choice Republicans have abandoned their own principles. If they feel so 
deeply, how could they introduce a bill that would affect only women 
and only fetuses in the District of Columbia?
  The Supreme Court decided 39 years ago that a woman is entitled to an 
abortion. That's a constitutional right. It's not a constitutional 
right everywhere except the Nation's Capital. The differences in our 
country on choice are great, but they are differences we all must 
respect. And the Supreme Court has settled those differences with Roe 
v. Wade, which says pre-viability, that is a decision between a woman 
and her doctor. After viability, of course, there are some things that 
can be done, but the health and life of the mother always have to be 
protected.
  This bill stretches beyond penalties doctors in our country would 
receive, and penalties on women, and it is the kind of bill that sends 
a message to women: this is not a House that is protecting your 
reproductive health. If this bill passes, it will cause the kind of 
uproar that we have not seen in almost 40 years.

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