Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BERA. Madam Speaker, as a doctor, I find these bills troubling. The oath I took is to do what is best for my patients.

One of these bills that is coming up today criminalizes the practice of medicine and questions doctors' judgments. It attempts to intimidate doctors from providing safe, evidence-based medicine and from doing our job, which is to sit with our patients, answer their questions, and give them the best medical advice and let them make the decisions that affect their lives.

This is unprecedented. It sets a precedent where those without any medical training can dictate medical practice and make choices for patients. This definitely oversteps any legal bounds. These are choices that should be made between doctors and patients.

Congressional interference into how we practice is overreach. It is a dramatic overreach, and it is dangerous because it sets a dangerous legislative precedent.

What makes the healthcare delivery system in America so great is that it is accessible to folks and that we understand and protect the doctor-patient privilege. That is at the very foundation of the oath we take when we enter the profession of medicine.

Now, the other bill that we are voting on today also dramatically restricts access. If you think about the number of women in America who get their care from Planned Parenthood, the preventive health services that Planned Parenthood provides is remarkable.

One in five women in this country have used a Planned Parenthood facility. It is a remarkably effective way for women to get their health care--and it is not just women; many men also use Planned Parenthood.

We should be having the exact opposite debate. We should be talking about how we can improve access to care, how we can make sure every American has access to all of their reproductive options. We should want to be talking about how we strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, how we take the government out of the exam room, how we leave some of the most intimate choices to the doctor and the patient.

Again, the oath that I took when I entered the profession was to sit with my patients, answer their questions, but then empower them to make the choices that fit their life circumstances. That is what we should be fighting for. Those are our principles. That is who we are as Americans with those freedoms.

Madam Speaker, let's talk about how we improve access to care. Let's talk about how we strengthen the doctor-patient relationship. This is about protecting people.

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