District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, even for a Republican House with a record of attacking women's rights, bringing up this bill under suspension that disregards the United States Constitution, is beyond brazen. It is time that my colleagues come clean with the American people and admit these arbitrary limitations on a woman's constitutional right to choose are part of a broader effort. Tonight, it's the District of Columbia. Tonight, 20 weeks is the threshold for turning a constitutional right into a crime. What is tomorrow--10 weeks, 10 days? Where does it end?

Mr. Speaker, when they talk about competing rights, they are intent on granting, even to a newly fertilized egg, the constitutional rights of American women. They want to put the rights of a zygote ahead of the rights of a woman exercising autonomy over her own body.

My colleagues say this bill is limited in scope; but their intentions, Mr. Speaker, are not limited in scope. Right now in this Congress and across the country, the rights of women are under attack.

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