Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, this bill is yet another step in the Republican crusade to impose a national abortion ban to treat women across America the way Texans have been abused already. And this drastic, harmful strategy is about so much more than abortion healthcare.

It is about the right to life for expectant mothers. It is about the right of a mother to be physically able to deliver a future baby. What happened to Texan Kate Cox is so very instructive. A mother herself, she was advised that having another child could not be possible if she was forced to deliver a fetus that could not live, yet Republicans insisted that she do just that. Under the Texas vigilante law, medical professionals--indeed, anyone who provides advice about an abortion, even for a child who is the victim of rape or incest--there are immediate penalties for them.

As they seek to cut support for Women, Infants, and Children funding, House Republicans want to divert tax money to these propaganda centers, usually posing as a health center but lacking any medical professional staff--public funds to centers designed to fearmonger and intimidate vulnerable women.

While Republicans demand protection of life from the moment of conception, they show so little interest in life after delivery. Women deserve healthcare protection free from coercion. For every American whose freedom is threatened by Republican interference, both patients and their doctors, I strongly oppose this bill.

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