Protect Life Act

Floor Speech

Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this dangerous legislation, the so-called Protect Life Act, which will, in fact, endanger the lives of women.

With only 23 legislative days remaining in this session before the end of the year, I'm stunned by the decision to waste precious time debating this bill, this unprecedented attack on women's health and the right of women to access reproductive health care.

We should, instead, be spending this time debating ways to grow our economy, ways to help small businesses create jobs, and ways to rebuild our roads and schools so that we can put people back to work and improve our competitiveness in the global marketplace.

But instead of talking about how we create jobs, we're debating merits of a bill intended to continue the war on women being waged by my Republican colleagues. This bill would effectively limit, for the first time, how women can spend their own private dollars to purchase health insurance. This is outrageous.

I am certain Members of this body would never dare to enact legislation limiting the ability of men to access health care.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill, to end the attack on women's rights and women's health, and to focus, instead, on job creation.

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