Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BERA. Madam Speaker, I am a doctor. I have been a doctor for over 20 years. When I graduated from medical school, I took an oath. That oath contains that promise of patient autonomy, that I am going to sit with my patients, I am going to answer their questions, and I am going to empower them to make the decisions that best fit their lives and their health care. That is sacred to the oath that I swore when I became a doctor.

This bill will make it criminal for me to do my job as a doctor. It is all about empowering our patients to make the decisions that best fit their lives, answering their questions. It is personal.

I think about this as a father of a daughter. I want my daughter to grow up in a country where she is in charge of her own healthcare decisions. When we think about limited government, none of us wants the government to come into the examining room and get between that doctor-patient relationship.

This is sacred. This is what health care is all about. It is about working with our patients, answering their questions, and putting them in charge of their own healthcare decisions.

This is a bad bill; this is a bill with massive government overreach. Vote against this bill, and let us do our job as doctors.

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