Protect Life Act

Floor Speech

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

We are running out of legislative days before the end of the year, and instead of focusing on jobs or the economy, the House leadership has decided once again to consider legislation that endangers and attacks the rights of women.

H.R. 358 is extreme legislation that puts the lives of women in danger. This legislation undermines the guarantee of emergency care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, EMTALA.

H.R. 358 strips EMTALA of its power to ensure that women receive abortion care in emergency situations at hospitals by making their right to health care secondary to a hospital's ability to refuse to provide abortion care.

Abortion care is necessary in some circumstances to save a woman's life. During the hearing on H.R. 358 in the Energy and Commerce Committee, some witnesses wrongly claimed that this was not the case. In response to those claims, Dr. Cassing Hammond, director of Northwestern University's Center for Family Planning and Contraception wrote a letter, based on his 20 years of experience in obstetric and complex abortion care, to the committee to set the record straight.

In his letter, Dr. Hammond states:

``Most patients are healthy women having healthy babies, but I am frequently asked to provide abortions for women confronting severely troubled pregnancies or their own life-endangering health issues. Physicians who provide health care to women cannot choose to ignore the more tragic consequences of human pregnancy--and neither should Congress.''

This legislation is an extreme and mean-spirited way to roll back women's health and rights. It is too extreme for women, too extreme for America, and we must reject it.

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