Capitol Words a project of the Sunlight Foundation

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark an incredible milestone. Thirty-nine years ago from this past Sunday, the Supreme Court of the United States guaranteed the women of this country our right to privacy. In handing down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, the justices of the Supreme Court affirmed the right for American women to keep medical decisions between women and their doctors.

This right was not easily won, and it has not come without four decades of fighting to protect it. And yet today, some are still trying to strip women of this right.

Many of those who seek to overturn Roe claim to be protecting life--but it's no secret that making abortion illegal won't end the problem of unplanned pregnancies in this country.

In fact, legal abortion keeps women more safe. In 1965, almost 20 percent of all maternal deaths were due to illegal abortion--and that's only what was reported.

So in looking ahead for 2012, I invite my anti-choice colleagues to consider this: instead of working against us by voting to defund title X programs for women who need them most, work with us in a shared goal of making abortion safe, legal, and rare. That is what the pro-choice movement stands for.

I was 6 years old when Roe v. Wade was handed down, and never in my life have I felt that my rights were threatened like I do now.

Last year alone, 69 laws containing 92 anti-abortion provisions were enacted in 24 states--and my home State of Florida was unfortunately responsible for several of them.

But the problem isn't only at the State level--last year, the Republican majority in the House took up a slew of bills that tried to do everything from defund Planned Parenthood, a crucial title X provider in our country, to redefine rape to say that if the victim was mentally unable to consent, then it didn't really count as forcible rape.

These bills are insulting and dangerous to women's health and wellbeing, something that we as Members of Congress should be working together to protect.

In this spirit, I remind my anti-choice colleagues that the concern for human life and dignity cannot end at birth. So, it is my sincere hope that in the budget bills we will soon take up, all Members work to pass a budget that holds women and children harmless, placing important programs like title X family planning, Head Start, and Maternal and Child Block Grants at the top of the priority list. In these trying financial times, we cannot afford to balance our budget on the backs of women and children.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I urge my colleagues to note this anniversary with the gravity it deserves, as well as the energy it will require to work to ensure that next year at this time, we are once again commemorating this crucial right as protected by the Supreme Court, and not lamenting yet another year in which this right has been assailed. Women's lives depend on it!