Unprecedented Crises in America
Floor Speech
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Mr. CLINE. Mr. Speaker, I rise with my colleagues in support of life and against the so-called Women's Health Protection Act, which would radically expand abortion nationwide through all 9 months of pregnancy.
Importantly, rather than protecting women and their children, it removes essential protections that are currently in place for both of them.
Here is what the bill does instead. It abolishes informed consent laws that ensure parental involvement in the decisions of their children. It abolishes laws that regulate the prescribing or dispensing of dangerous chemical abortion drugs.
Think about this for a minute. This bill would prohibit laws that actually protect women from the harms of a dangerous, do-it-yourself chemical abortion without seeing a doctor first. It abolishes laws that regulate or restrict abortions performed via telemedicine. It abolishes health and safety regulations for abortion clinics. It abolishes waiting period laws. It abolishes laws that prevent abortion prior to fetal viability, legislatively imposing the viability rule.
In addition, the bill would strip the rights of States to pass lifesaving regulations on abortion and also requires that new pro-life laws be approved by the Department of Justice before taking effect.
The radical nature of this bill goes so far as to make it impossible to protect unborn children who have been diagnosed with Down syndrome or other fetal anomaly diagnoses from selective abortions, as well as enabling sex-selection abortions. It denies basic science.
But here is what we do know. At 6 weeks, the unborn baby has a heartbeat of approximately 98 beats per minute. By 10 weeks, the unborn baby has arms and legs, fingers and toes, and is sucking his or her thumb. By 15 weeks, all of the unborn baby's major organs have formed. They can feel pain, and surgeries have been successfully performed on unborn babies at this age.
That is why I strongly oppose H.R. 3755. Since my first day in Congress, I have stood to protect life and be a voice for the defenseless, and I won't stop now.
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