The Constitutionality of Abortion-Inducing Drugs

Floor Speech

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Mrs. WAGNER. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for hosting this Special Order. There is no greater defender or champion for faith or family or freedom than Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler.

Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to protect the conscience of the American people. Since taking office in January of last year, I have heard from countless constituents on how the government is abusing their individual freedoms under ObamaCare over and over again.

I recently heard from my constituent, George, a seminarian from St. Louis County, about the administration's mandate. He notes that what the administration is asking Catholic hospitals and nonprofits to do is in direct opposition to our Catholic beliefs. He writes to me:

Mrs. Wagner, I ask you to please stand up for us. We are being persecuted and unjustly forced to comply with procedures that are in conflict with our own beliefs.

As George articulated, the United States Federal Government is currently discriminating against its citizens of faith in this country.

One of this country's founding principles is the freedom to worship without interference by the Federal Government. Our forefathers did not flee from oppressive nations, build a country on liberties, and emblaze them in the Bill of Rights just for this administration to trample on them over and over again.

Yet the rule issued by the administration under ObamaCare does just that. This administration now mandates that religious nonprofits and businesses must provide health care benefits that go against their fundamental beliefs. If businesses and nonprofits do not comply with this mandate, they are penalized with crippling fines that the gentlewoman from Missouri has talked about. These fines can go up to $100 per day per employee. This means that if a business decides to provide health care but does not comply with the mandate, they can owe up to $36,500 for one employee for the year. This is in comparison to the $2,000 they could owe for not providing any health insurance--any health insurance--for that same employee at all.

Mr. Speaker, not only does this not make any sense, it is discrimination by the Federal Government and it is wrong. This mandate puts the jobs, the livelihoods, and the health care of millions of Americans at risk. It forces those who stand up for their conscience to choose between paying detrimental fines that could shut down their business or dropping health care coverage, as has been discussed before, completely for their employees altogether.

Mr. Speaker, I ask you: Should the Federal Government be allowed to tell the St. Louis Post-Dispatch what they can and cannot print? Should the Federal Government tell my neighbors in Ballwin, Missouri, what they can and cannot say about their government leaders? Should the Federal Government tell George, the seminarian from St. Louis County, what he can and cannot preach?

Mr. Speaker, while in many parts of the world authoritarian governments control the press, prohibit freedom of speech, and only allow for certain beliefs, that cannot be the case in the United States of America. We will not, I believe, stand by and watch this administration strip away our freedoms. I will continue to fight on behalf of the constituents of Missouri and all the American people to keep this the land of the free.

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