And Still I Rise

Floor Speech

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Mr. GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, and still I rise. And I rise today, Madam Speaker, to defend a woman's right to choose, to defend the law of the land, to defend Roe v. Wade. And I rise to do so because it is the woman's choice, not the man's.

I happen to be a male. It is not my choice. I defend a woman's right to make that choice, whatever it may be, and Roe v. Wade has to be a part of it, or the right to choose should be a part of it.

So, today, I would like to share a brief vignette to make my point. Let us assume that you are a person of means. You have resources, and you are adamantly, vehemently, totally, and absolutely opposed to abortion.

Let us assume that abortion is banned across the land, and let us assume that your daughter is raped--ban on abortion, your daughter is raped. You are vehemently, adamantly, totally, and completely opposed to abortion.

But you have the right to change your mind, and you have the right to use your resources to go to some distant place on vacation, take a road trip, and come back after you have exercised your right to choose, or your daughter has exercised her right to choose.

No woman who is raped should be forced to bear the child of the rapist. Have we no sense of what a woman goes through?

We should not allow ourselves to be put in a position where poor women without resources will not have the opportunity to exercise the right that wealthier, resourced persons will exercise.

So, I support maintaining the right to choose, and I support maintaining peaceful protest. I believe that John Kennedy was right when he proclaimed: ``Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.''

I don't like having people protest me as I leave the plane. I don't enjoy having people protest as I walk into supermarkets. But I accept it because I understand that this is a means by which they can express themselves without having to express themselves by more violent means.

John Kennedy is the person who said it: ``Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.''

Let's accept peaceful protest. I do not accept any violence in protest. But peaceful protest, as much as it may disturb me, and as much as I may dislike it, I accept it because I understand what the alternative is.

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