McDermott on the "Protect Life Act": "Christ Wouldn't Have Done That"

We were very, very saddened to hear of another attack on the 99% this morning. H.R. 358, called the "Protect Life Act" by some of its supporters, amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to restrict abortion access in ways that, as is always the case with American restriction on abortion, hurt poor women the most: forcing some state health plans to drop abortion, giving hospitals a right to "exercise their conscience" in treatment of a pregnant woman facing emergency medical conditions, and more.

Our own Congressman Jim McDermott, like a boss, laid it all out with this short, sweet and to-the point-tirade that summarizes why this bill is so infuriating while calling out politicians who hide behind theology to hurt women. It's less than a minute and a half long, and worth every second of your time.

Transcript (emphasis mine):

This is nothing more or less than an attack on poor women. I stood beside the bed of a couple of women in the Buffalo General Hospital in 1963 and watched them die because of back-alley abortions. I was in the State Legislature in 1970 when we in the State of Washington granted, by referendum, vote of all the people, the right of women to have an abortion. Now the question is, how do you get it paid for? Well, when I came to Seattle, if you wanted an abortion what you did is you went down and you bought a ticket to Japan, you flew to Japan, had an abortion, had a day of shopping on Tokyo while you made sure you were okay medically, and then you came home. Rich women never had any problem. But the women I stood next to as they died, and left 12 kids without mothers, were poor. And that's what this is really all about. It is an attack by the right wing, who consider--they wrap themselves in theological (arraignment?) and then attack poor women. Christ wouldn't have done that.

Why not take a look at who voted this bill in? The icing on the horrible, depressing mess of a cake: this includes 15 democrats.