Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, while their leader boasts of pardoning hundreds of convicted violent felons who attacked and brutalized 140 police officers in this building, the party formerly of Abraham Lincoln in Congress today is working to create a new crime and to perfect three great GOP legislative arts visible this week: Number one, complete legislative redundancy; two, interfering in other families' private lives to prey on their tragedies and medical catastrophes; and, three, threatening to send American doctors to jail.
Morrison) who is a mother of three, an OB/GYN, and a former State legislator serving in her first term. This is her first speech on the House floor.
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Mr. RASKIN. Clark), the minority whip.
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from the 26th District of New York (Mr. Kennedy), a father of three and the still-bereaved father of Brigid Nicole.
Mr. KENNEDY of New York. Madam Speaker, I rise today to oppose H.R. 21, an assault on women's healthcare and fundamental rights. On October 19, 2007, my wife Katie gave birth to our beautiful baby girl, Brigid Nicole Kennedy. My wife and I had lost some pregnancies. We were so excited when we got the news she was expecting. It was a girl, and we named her Brigid. She was kicking and doing all the things a parent would expect during a pregnancy.
Six weeks before my wife gave birth, we went for an ultrasound and received the worst news imaginable. Brigid was diagnosed with hydrops fetalis, compressing her lungs with fluid, putting her and my wife's life in danger. We were devastated. The only answer was to terminate the pregnancy in order to save the life of my wife whose health was becoming more and more threatened.
It was a choice we did not want to make. It was a choice we had to make. We wanted our baby more than anything. We saw doctors, specialists, and neonatologists. We traveled where we were promised we would receive the best care. If there was something we could do to bring her safely into this world, we did it.
We embraced each other as a family and prayed.
Then, with the guidance of our doctors, knowing that we were losing our child, knowing that she would be born and we would have only a very short period of time with her, we chose palliative care to keep our daughter comfortable and to love her during her time on Earth.
Baby Brigid, who was already loved, would not live the beautiful life we had dreamed for her.
We had to schedule what we knew would be a devastating delivery for the sake of my wife's health. We held her, baptized her, and sent her on to the Lord. She was with us for only 4 minutes. We watched our baby girl become our baby angel, and our lives were transformed forever.
As we faced one of our darkest days as a family, the last thing we needed was legislation that served to stand between the health of my wife, unborn child, and the future of our family.
If this bill had been law, doctors would have been required to whisk Brigid away from us, inhumanely poke and prod our baby girl with tubes, needles, and IVs, causing her needless pain, suffering, and torture.
My wife and I would have been robbed of those precious minutes with our baby Brigid. It would have eviscerated the one moment my wife and I cling to as baby Brigid's parents.
It would have only added to our pain, hurt, and helplessness--that is, if they would have performed the procedure at all, for fear of breaking the law and going to jail or losing their license in order to save my wife.
I thank my wife, Katie, for allowing me to share our story, and I share it because it is not ours alone.
Countless women and families with dreams for their children and their future face difficult decisions and unthinkable circumstances every day. Our government has no business intruding on a family's deeply personal medical decisions, yet the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision has opened the floodgate for States to rob women and families of the ability to make healthcare choices with their doctors, including the very difficult choice to access safe, legal, and oftentimes medically necessary abortions.
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 20 seconds to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. KENNEDY of New York. Madam Speaker, they are now using this bill, built on a despicable lie rooted in neither medicine nor science, to restrict access to abortion nationwide. It would levy criminal charges against healthcare practitioners and providers, jeopardizing their ability to deliver proper medical care to women. It impacts people all over this country.
Madam Speaker, today, I will vote ``no'' on H.R. 21, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. Vote ``no'' to criminalizing healthcare and ``no'' to imposing more hurt on families facing very difficult days.
The morning after we said good-bye to Brigid, I woke up in the hospital and a rainbow appeared. It was a sign from above that our baby girl, Brigid Nicole, was home in Heaven.
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Kennedy, Ms. Morrison, and Ms. Clark for their poignant, riveting personal testimonies. I hope our colleagues are listening to our colleagues over here.
This bill is all about demonizing women, threatening doctors, exploiting other people's tragedies, and dividing the country.
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the passionate vehemence of the gentleman, but the whole substance of his argument completely undercuts the meaning of their bill.
In the case that I could hear him talking about, Kermit Barron Gosnell was an American serial killer who indeed engaged in precisely the conduct the gentleman is talking about and was convicted of murder in Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
Infanticide is against the law in 50 States in America, and this guy was picked up for the conduct the gentleman spoke of. He was prosecuted for it, and he was sent to jail.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Will the gentleman yield?
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Mr. RASKIN. No.
Madam Speaker, I would like my time restored.
I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon), the distinguished ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government.
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler).
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a letter calling this a dangerous government intrusion into medical care which injects politicians into the patient-provider relationship, signed by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Nursing, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and a dozen other organizations. January 22, 2025.
Dear Members of Congress: We, the undersigned medical and health professional organizations, stand in strong opposition to H.R. 21/S. 6. This bill represents a dangerous government intrusion into medical care.
H.R. 21/S. 6 is a departure from current law. It injects politicians into the patient-provider relationship, disregarding health care professionals' training and clinical judgment and undermining their ability to determine the best course of action with their patients. Patients need and deserve access to compassionate and appropriate medical care. Every patient needs to be able to make the decision that is best for them and their family. H.R. 21/S. 6 would impose criminal and civil penalties on clinicians that could chill the provision of care by those who work with high-risk patients in complicated situations, limiting access for their patients.
Abortion is safe and is a component of comprehensive medical care. Health care professionals who provide abortion care comply with existing laws and provide excellent care. People seeking abortion care, including those with pregnancy complications, deserve the highest quality medical treatment based on their individual health circumstances. H.R. 21/S. 6 seeks to undermine access to abortion by stigmatizing the health care professionals who provide essential care.
We urge lawmakers to oppose the insertion of politics into medicine and vote against H.R. 21/S. 6. Sincerely,
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Nursing, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American College of Nurse-Midwives, American College of Physicians, American Gynecological & Obstetrical Society, American Psychiatric Association, American Public Health Association.
American Society for Reproductive Medicine, American Society of Hematology, Council of Chairs of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Infectious Diseases Society for Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health, North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Society of Family Planning.
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath), who is a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Representative McBath herself has experienced three miscarriages and had to give birth to a stillborn child.
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Kamlager-Dove).
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Mr. RASKIN. Wasserman Schultz).
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the Republicans' reproductive healthcare surveillance act.
This bill is the very definition of a wolf in sheep's clothing. It uses an intentionally scary title that simply doesn't happen. Babies born alive are not killed by abortions after birth.
Republicans pretend to support families and pregnant women, but this bill is clearly another attempt to control a woman's body. It is a bill to wedge the government between couples and their doctor when facing incredibly difficult decisions.
This bill pushes lies and misinformation about pregnancy and abortion care. It targets women who received heartbreaking diagnoses of serious health complications, the kind of complications that puts the life of a fetus or their own life at risk.
That is why the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists strongly opposes this legislation. These are the very frontline medical professionals who provide care for women throughout their pregnancy.
We all know women who are suffering due to the Republicans' agenda that puts pregnant women in the crosshairs of their extremism.
Sadly, these tragic stories are not hard to find in my home State of Florida. Let's not create more of them.
Mr. Speaker, we must reject these attacks and stand up for women in our country. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
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Mr. RASKIN. Leger Fernandez), who is the chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus.
Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, when I was pregnant, I ended up in an emergency room waving my ultrasound picture showing I was pregnant. I was so proud. After multiple miscarriages, I wanted to keep this pregnancy, so I didn't take anesthesia.
As I lay bleeding on that operating table, I could hear the doctors yelling: We are losing her. We are losing her.
My doctors had to worry about keeping me alive that day, but they didn't have to worry about going to jail for any decision I made.
However, today Republicans would criminalize reproductive healthcare nationwide. Women experiencing heartbreaking, life-threatening pregnancies will die on the operating table because doctors will be scared of going to jail for 5 years under this bill.
Republicans don't seem to care about the deadly consequences.
Do they care about women at all?
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Mr. RASKIN. Bonamici), who is the mother of two wonderful grown children and a consumer advocate.
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Mr. RASKIN. Lois Frankel), who is the chair emerita of the Democratic Women's Caucus and who is also a proud mother and grandmother.
Ms. LOIS FRANKEL of Florida. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. This bill is not about protecting anyone. It is about intimidating doctors and making it harder for women to get the care they need.
Let's be clear: Every baby born in this country is already protected under the law. The bill creates unnecessary rules that aren't based on medical facts or science. It threatens healthcare providers with jail for doing their job.
Instead of focusing on real issues like making healthcare more affordable or addressing the maternal healthcare crisis, Republicans are doubling down on their dangerous agenda of banning abortion nationwide.
Women deserve the freedom to make their own medical decisions without politicians getting in the way. That is why I strongly oppose this very deadly bill.
Mr. Speaker, we ask the mothers and fathers of America: Who do you want in the doctor's office with you making this decision, a medical decision, OB-GYNs and doctors who vehemently oppose this legislation, or the MAGA politicians who are applauding this week the release of hundreds of violent cop assaulting convicted felons.
The vast majority of American people reject this legislation and say: Let us trust the medical practitioners.
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Mr. RASKIN. Jacobs).
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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, my distinguished colleague from Texas keeps referencing his female staff and colleagues, but it seems like there has been a coed exodus from his side of the aisle as support for this bill vanishes. In the meantime, I don't have enough time, and I am happy to be yielded time to share with my colleagues.
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Mr. RASKIN. Bynum), the distinguished Representative and mother of two.
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Mr. RASKIN. Pressley), the co-chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus.
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Mr. RASKIN. Gillen), the distinguished Representative and mother of four.
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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her eloquent words. When will Republicans stop feeding on other people's tragedies? We don't need MAGA in the delivery room.
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Mr. RASKIN. Dexter), the mother of two and a critical care physician.
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Mr. RASKIN. Simon), the mother of two, who, like so many women, was forced to make a choice when her child died in utero.
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Mr. RASKIN. Chu).
Mr. Speaker, now we have had the opportunity to be lectured about life by a gun dealer. That is pretty impressive. I think he gave the game away when he finished his remarks by saying ``life begins at conception,'' a proposition that is rejected by the overwhelming majority of the American people who think that women have a right to choose, but that is a topic for another day. After spending all their time saying it wasn't about abortion, I am afraid he gave the game away at the end.
This bill is an exercise in complete legislative redundancy. It is an interference in other people's private and medical lives to prey on their personal tragedies and catastrophes as we have heard throughout the debate. It is a shocking threat to send OB/GYN doctors and physicians to jail at a time when we have a chronic shortage of OB/GYN doctors and physicians as well as nurses across the country.
Their bill proposes to move in exactly the wrong direction, which is perhaps why they had a shortage of speakers on their side and we had a shortage of time because I could have had dozens more people who wanted to speak on behalf of the American majority against this absurd attempt to interfere in the medical lives of the American people.
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