Yesterday, in an hours-long debate on funding for Planned Parenthood, and immediately after New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith’s five-minute recitation of the graphic details of a particular kind of abortion, California Congresswoman Rep. Jackie Speier (D) brought the floor to a hush:
You know I had really planned to speak about something else. But the gentleman from New Jersey just put my stomach in knots. Because I am one of those woman he spoke about just now. I had a procedure at 17 weeks, pregnant with a child that had moved from the vagina into the cervix. And that procedure that you just talked about is a procedure I endured. I lost a baby. But for you to stand on this floor and suggest as you have that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcomed or done cavalierly or done without any thought is preposterous. To think that we are here tonight debating this issue, while the American people, if they are listening, are scratching their heads and wondering “what does this have to do with me getting a job? What does this have to do with reducing the deficit?” The answer is nothing at all.
Congressman Smith can't be embarrassed, but some of the Republican women in Congress who support anti-abortion legislation ought to be embarrassed ... like Madam Foxx, the former feminist pro-choicer who lobbied for the Equal Rights Amendment.
No comments:
Post a Comment