of american fabric, just as caucasian babies do. all babies are valuable. but what we're seeing is an even higher percentage of babies that are losing their life in the minority community. in particular we see this with minorities as they access medicaid funding. if they have medicaid funding, government funding, we'll see more abortions and we'll see that particularly in the minority communities. this is a commonground issue i think that we can share with those who embrace a pro-abortion view and those who embrace the pro-life view because the polls have shown very clearly that a majority of americans do not support taxpayer-funded abortion. they don't support it. we are here to represent the will and interests of the american people, and that's not where the american people are at right now. they don't want to see us spending their money, when we

don't have much, when this government is in the red, red ink up to our eyeballs, we don't have money to pay for the intentional murder of unborn children. the obama changes this amendment to the financial services appropriations bill so that publicly funded abortions will once again be available in the district of columbia. so right here, where we stand this evening, this is the district of columbia, and so now once again, president obama is expanding abortion. instead of making it rare, instead of making it safer, this is making more abortions, particularly for babies of -- preborn babies of color. the district of columbia has a record of abusing taxpayer funds for abortion. it's bad news but it's true news. in the 1980's, when the district had the most permissive abortion funding policy in this country,

abortions were funded for anyone, not just medicaid recipients. elizabeth reveal was the d.c. budget director at the time shetch confirmed the district's government has a policy of funding aabortion on demand and did not attempt to determine the circumstances of the pregnancy. d.c. allows minors, that's children, to receive abortion services without the consent of their parents. so imagine that. here in d.c., children can receive an abortion without their parents' consent, which means that the american taxpayer will be funding abortions, paying for them, for children. in minors could easily be brought in from other states. d.c. is only about 10 miles square system of minors could be transported across state lines, brought to d.c. from other state, to have abortions. paid for by the american

taxpayer, right here in washington, d.c., avoid the parental notification laws in their home states. that's according to the gutmayer institute, according to planned parenthood. they don't have accurate numbers on abortions in d.c., due to women from other states coming to d.c. for abortions. there's problems with this. deep problems with this measure. that's why we had the dornan amendment. it made sense. it was only reasonable. so unfortunately, under the obama administration, we are taking the band-aid off this problem and exposing it to even more infection. and the infection is more money. and we know that more money will lead to more air abortions. particular -- to more abortions. particularly more abortions for babies of color. this is really a sad story. we don't want to just talk

about sad stories because life is such a wonderful story. we would love to just be here and talk about the ps positive story of life. and it's a beautiful story. but this is a really ugly story. because it's about expanding more abortion, more misery for women who are forced into abortions, often against their will, who are given incomplete, inadequate information and may be headed for a lifetime of addiction or depression or a sense of loss and grief that they may have to deal with for 10, 15, 20 years. we don't want this to happen. we want women to be dignified. we don't want women to be brutalized. that's why we're here this evening. we really believe in women and we believe in women's choices, empowering women. this doesn't empower women, to put them in a situation where they're forced to do something

quite often by pressure from boyfriends who are careless and from parents who don't want to be bothered. i want to again thank representative schmidt, she has a heart of love on this issue. she has with her courage and dignity brought together this group of women on the house floor this evening, and men, who believe strongly that american women will be hurt by this bill. certainly american children will be hurt by this bill. i thank you for your courage in bringing this forward this evening. mrs. schmidt: thank you so much my good friend from minnesota. i want to add that while the whole issue is a very emotional issue, one of the things that really disturbs me in the whole abortion debate is when minors have abortions without parental consent, because when a minor has an abortion, that means that child has gotten into a family situation, and they're underage, and in many states,

that's considered statutory rape, and in some cases, including in my own district, planned parenthood, which technically is in district one, but is in my own community, there are two lawsuits right now on underage children that had abortions and their parents were not adequately notified by it system of the whole issue of parental notification on anything, on a child taking an aspirin, is critical. we know that back in the 1980's, the district of columbia was very open about abortions, let folks from other states have abortions, let minors without parental consent have abortions. i don't think we want to expand on that policy today. but i want to turn this over right now to my good friend, the head of our values actions team, the good congressman, mr. pitts, would you please give us your words of advice and

encouragement on this issue. mr. pitts: thank you, jean. i really want to commend the lady from ohio for her leadership and the pro-life women's caucus for having this special order. you know, there are really no more eloquent voices for women and children than pro-life women. and you're not only eloquent, you're elegant. i want to thank you for your wonderful statements on the issue of life and women and the unborn child. you know, abortion is an exploitation of women and children. i remember hearing the president of feminists for life, fredericka matthews green when she spoke to the congressional life forum. she said, abortion breaks a woman's heart. she said, there are always two victims with an abortion.

one's the baby, the other is the mother. one's dead, one is wounded. and we should keep that in mind as we talk about this issue. i am very sad to see this administration act so quickly to go toward promoting abortion policies. three days after the president was inaugurated, on friday evening, at 5:30, about 5:30, he issued an order overturning the mexico city policy. mexico city was started by president reagan and it has been in our policy for many years. and he overturned mexico city. what that does is permit all of the family planning funds that go to international

organizations, to go to organizations that promote and provide are abortions. by eliminating the mexico city policy. he has given them that money. and not only did he overturn mexico city, in the omnibus bill he raised the amount of money this year to $545 million going to these international organizations that promote and provide abortions. it's a tragedy. he is becoming known by many in the pro life community as the abortion president. it's very unfortunate and very sasmed the next thing he did shortly after that, was to issue an executive order overturning the federal ban that president bush had put on the stem cell policies, expanding the use of taxpayer funds for use to destroy

embryos so that they could harvest the stem cells and use them for experimentation. not only did he do that, he in his order issueds -- issued an order to discourage adult stem cell research. now we all know, having followed this for many years network last 25 years, they've done research on mice for the last 12 or 13 years on humans, that the only -- the only thing that has worked as far as treating humans are adult stem cells. there are something like 73 successful treatments. and several protocols. using adult stem cells. but nothing using embryonic stem cells, which kills the tiniest of human beings. the human embree yow. and then he -- embryo.

then he probose -- proposed a rule shortly after that to remove the critical regulations put in place to protect the conscience of health care workers, so that now health care workers, doctors, nurses, those in health care, can be compelled against their conscience to provide abortion services, referral and providing abortion services. this is another promotion, if you will, of abortion. then in the omnibus bill, the -- they removed the provisions that would have prevented funds from going to the unpa, the groups in china that promote abortion, forced abortion, and forced sterilization. they now are eligible to get those funds for that practice. i remember a few weeks ago, harry wu, the great human

rights activist from china, who spent 19 years in the gulag there, presented testimony for the -- before the human rights caucus. he said, you know, in china, having a baby is not a human right. he said if you have a second pregnancy, they will forcefully abort that woman. they will forcibly sterilize her. they will find her and tear down her house and sometimes imprison her. and we're putting u.s. taxpayer funds into organizations that promote and provide that kind of service in china? it is really a terrible thing that american taxpayers who have a conscience against their funds from being used for these things are now seeing this administration open the flood gates for these kinds of

provisions in our country and around the world. now in this budget, in the obama budget he has proposed, he's included a loophole that would allow taxpayer funds for abortion in the district of columbia. the best way to reduce abortions is to limit taxpayer fundsing for abortion. there's been a lot of talk about abortion reduction and the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that public funding for abortion increases the number of unborn babies lost to abortion. even the institute that's an arm of planned parenthood issues routine reports shows that when funding is not available, 30% fewer women have abortions. that means 30% of babies whose her receive government subsidized health care survive because of abortion funding restriction.

so undermining common sense policies like the restriction on taxpayer funding for abortion flies in the face of the president's claims that he's working to reduce abortion in america. it is very unfortunately. and so i just want to commend the pro-life women for this special order tonight. they have an understanding like no one else on this issue and it is so heartening to hear their eloquent testimony and voices on behalf of women and children here in our country and around the world. thank you, and thanks to the gentlelady for inviting me down, i commend you for the special order tonight. mrs. schmidt: thank you for sharing some moments with us and for all you do with the values action team to keep us alerted to issues that are important to all in the united

states. when i started this a few moments ago, i was talking a little bit about the new administration and the new president and matching his words with his actions. i'd like to go back a second, i have a transcript from the saddleback forum which was back in august of 2009, and i got this off cnn and i just want to read you a couple of paragraphs so that, madam speaker, you understand that i'm not taking what then-candidate obama, now president obama has said, i want to give you the full text. pastor warren after asking then candidate obama about his views on religion, pastor warren said, well, then-candidate obama said, i thought that was pretty tough. warren said, let's go through some tough questions, tough ones, now the most and

then-candidate obama said that was pretty tough. pastor warren said, that was a freebie. that's a gim me. let's deal with abortion. 40 million abortions since roe v. wade. as a pastor i've had to deal with this all the time. all the pain and all the conflicts and i know this is a very complex issue. 40 million abortions, at what point does a baby get human rights in your view? then candidate obama said, well, you know, i think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade. pastor warren, have you -- then-candidate obama, but let me speak more generally about the issue of abortion. shs something obviously this country wrestles with. one thing i'm absolutely

convinced is there's a moral and ethical element to this issue. . i think anyone who tries to not grasp the graphity of the abortion issue is not paying attention. that's point number one. point number two, i am pro-choice. i believe in roe v. wade and i come to that conclusion not because i am pro-abortion but because ultimately i don't think women make these decisions casually. i think they, they wrestle with these things in profound ways in consultation with their pastors or spouses or doctors or family members. so this for me,he goal right now and should be, and this is where i think we can find common ground, and by the way i have now inserted this into the democratic party platform, is how do we reduce the number of abortions? the fact is that although we have -- had a president who was

opposed to abortion over the last eight years, abortions have not gone down. and that is something we have to address. pastor warren. have you ever voted to limit the number of abortions -- limit or reduce abortions? then-candidate obama, i'm in favor, for example, of limits on late-term abortions. and there is an exception for the mother's health. from the perspective of those pro-life i think they would think that's inadequate. i respect their vie us. one thing i always said is that on this particular issue if you believe that life begins at conception, then, and you are consistent in that belief, then i can't argue with you on that. because that is the core of the faith for you. madam speaker, i'd like to repeat that because i'm going to be coming back to that in a few minutes. then candidate obama said, if you believe life begins at conception, then, and you are consistent in that belief, then

i can't argue with you on that because that is a core issue of faith for you. what i can say -- what i can and do say and there are ways that we can work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, so that we actually are reducing the sense that women are seeking abortions, and as an example of that one of the things that i have talked about is how do we provide the resources that allow women to make the choice to keep a child? you know, have we given them health care that they need? have we given them the supportive services they need? have we given them the options of adoption that are necessary? that can make a genuine difference. when i began this i talked about the fact that the president when he was running for office spoke of concept of abortion where we would actually reduce the number of abortions. and yet as soon as he took

office he seemed to revert that policy. as many of my colleagues demonstrated tonight, just days after taking office the first thing that this president did was reduce -- reverse the mexico city policy. and in that policy again simply says that u.s. taxpayer dollars will not promote abortions overseas. and that any n.g.o., any governmental agency or nongovernmental agency overseas cannot use that money to promote abortion that is they receive from the united states. but as if this were not enough today, congress considered a bill that would establish the state department -- in the state department the office of global women's issues. one of those purposes of that global office on women's issues is to promote abortions overseas. so as the president stated when he was running for office he

wanted to reduce the number of abortion, he put it in the platform of the democratic party, he said that if you're consistent in your beliefs that life begins at conception, that this should be recognized, one of the things that this congress in concert with the admistration is doing is rapidly promoting abortions through the use of federal funds for those abortions. but it's not just the funding of overseas abortions that is occurring. it's not the only assault on creating a culture of life that we have witnessed both from this administration and this congress. it's not the only instance where the administration's rhetoric does not match its actions. when candidate obama said about stem cell research at the saddleback forum, he said, now, and i quote, now, if in fact adult stem cell lines are working just as well, of course we should try to avoid any kind

of moral arguments that may be in place. i got to repeat that. candidate obama at the time said if in fact adult stem cell lines are working just as well, then of course we should try to avoid any kind of moral arguments that may be in place. well, to date adult stem cells have actually found to be useful in treating a large number of diseases or ailments. embryonic stem cells have not yet been found to effectively treat anything. yet in march our president signed an executive order overturning the bush administration's stem cell research policy. and the assault on life does not stop there. nor does the double talk. you know, the president recently spoke at notre dame and it was met with some controversy.

and in that may speech -- i want to read to you the context, the full context of what he said on the issue of abortion. and he said, and i quote, nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion. as i considered the controversy surrounding by mivisit here, i am reminded of an encounter during my senate campaign, one that i describe in a book i wrote called "the audacity of hope." a few days after i won the democratic nomination, i received an email from a doctor who told me that while he voted for me in the primary, he had a serious concern that might prevent him from voting for me in the general election. he described himself as a christian who was strongly pro-life, but that's not what was preventing him from voting for me. what bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my website. an entry that said i would fight

right-winged ideologies who want to take away a woman's right to choose. the doctor said that he had assumed that i was a reasonable person, but that if i truly believe that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then i was not very reasonable. he wrote, i do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words. fair-minded words. after i read the doctor's letter i wrote back to him and thanked him. i didn't change my position, but i did tell my staff to change the words on my website. and i said a prayer that night that i might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. because when we do that, when we open our hearts and our minds to those who may not think like we do or believe what we do, that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.

that's when we begin to say, maybe we won't agree on abortion but we can still agree that this is a heartwrenching decision for any woman to make both with moral and spiritual dimensions. so let's work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies and making adoption more available and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term. let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion and draft a sensible conscience clause and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women. i could go on with the speech. but what i want to say is that while speaking at notre dame, the president said, let's honor

the conscience of those who disagree with abortions and draft a sensible conscience clause to make sure our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound evidence. i didn't take it out of context. but he actually said this, madam speaker. after his administration had rescinded the conscience clause regulations promulgated by the bush administration. these regulations made it clear that a health care provider who would not have to choose between his or her deeply held moral and religious beliefs and a career. in fact, this is what the president then candidate alluded to at the saddleback conference. that your conscience should be recognized and your moral ground should be recognized, especially if you're consistent with your belief that life begins at conception and ends at natural death. and yet the conscience clause was almost immediately rescinded upon this president's arrival to

take office. does the gentlelady wish to say something? ms. foxx: i wonder if the gentlewoman would yield. i appreciate very much what you and our other colleagues have pointed out tonight in terms of the inconsistencies in the president's position. i also want to thank you for having pointed out the joy of having children and i want to bring up one more example of what i think is an inconsistent cy on -- inconsistency on the part of the president. he's nominated don johnson to head up the -- dawn johnson to head up the office of legal counsels. and she's one of the most controversial of his nominees. she formerly worked for naral and the aclu's reproductive freedom project. she's compared pregnancy to

involuntary servitude. describing pregnant women as losers in the contraceptive lottery. she even criticized then senator clinton for claiming a need to keep abortions traumatic experiences rare. she as i said has said that she beliefs that -- believes that being pregnant -- banning abortion undermines the 13th amendment which bans slavery. and she says that there is no father and no child just a fetus. any move of the courts to force a woman to have a child amounts to involuntary servitude. she goes on and on and on to talk about how horrible it is to bear a child. and i think it is a very sad, sad situation that the president has nominated a woman who has these kinds of beliefs to head

up an extremely important position in the administration, the office of legal counsel. and i wanted to point that out as another inconsistency in the positions that he's taken. i yield back. mrs. schmidt: i thank you so much for that because consistently since january the words and the actions have not met. the conscience clause which he clearly took out and yet said in both as a candidate and in subsequent speeches as president that our conscience needs to be recognized and our moral beliefs need to be recognized, especially on this issue. he's really taken that away. and what we have now -- are facing today is the change in the d.c. policy in which we are going to be faced with allowing for the public funding of abortions. something