Nancy Pelosi

“ If my body indeed does enter early menopause, no fertility specialist in the world will be able to help me have my own children. I will have no choice at giving my mother her desperately desired grandbabies, simply because the insurance policy -- that I paid for, totally unsubsidized by my school -- wouldn't cover my prescription for birth control when I needed it. Now, in addition to potentially facing the health complications that come with having menopause at such an early age -- increased risk of cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis -- she may never be able to conceive a child. ”

“ Even though we were there to talk about the needs of tens of millions of American women to have access to insurance for preventive health care, including reproductive rights, including contraception, the only freedom that was being debated was the freedom to tell women that they would not have access to family planning. ”

“ I've talked with many women on our campus who, for them, the idea that they should go without contraception during law school and risk pregnancy while they're in law school, that's yet another way of asking them to put their education second, because -- I can't imagine -- I know a few women who have been pregnant during law school, but I just can't imagine how they do that. And I just think it's not a feasible option either economically or just in terms of their ability to balance everything, for most women. ”

“ How can Congress consider the Fortenberry, Rubio and Blunt legislation, that would allow even more employers and institutions to refuse contraception coverage, and then respond that the nonprofit clinics should step up to take care of the resulting medical crisis; particularly when so many legislators are attempting to defund those very same clinics? ”

“ So I thank you for coming here today to finally give the other side, the side of millions of women across the country who want safe and affordable coverage for basic preventive health care, including contraceptives. ”

“ If this were a hearing on prostate cancer and there was a line-up of women and no men, I guarantee you, men would not have stuck around, because they would have said to themselves, you know, come on, give me a break. ”

“ When this exception does exist, these exceptions don't accomplish their well-intended goals, because when you let university administrators or other employers, rather than women and their doctors, dictate whose medical needs are legitimate and whose are not, a woman's health takes a backseat to a bureaucracy focused on policing her body. ”

“ I sincerely pray that we don't have to wait until she loses an ovary or is diagnosed with cancer before her needs and the needs of all of these women are taken seriously, because this is the message that not requiring coverage of contraception sends: A woman's reproductive health care isn't a necessity, isn't a priority.
One women told us that she knew birth control wasn't covered on the insurance, and she assumed that that's how Georgetown's insurance handled all of women's reproductive and sexual health care. ”

“ The so-called morality legislation is intended to permit any employer, including for-profit sector companies, to deny insurance coverage for contraceptives that are contrary to their religious beliefs, or even broadly to any of their moral convictions. ”

“ For the first time, those who have paid attention to this issue now know that the affordable health care act covers contraceptives, so that women no longer have to pay extra for pills, devices or other means of contraception. ”

“ Under the administration's announced common-sense accommodation, churches do not have to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives for their church or their synagogue or their religious establishment. And women who work at nonprofit religious entities that serve the greater American public, such as hospitals and universities, can obtain coverage directly -- not from any religious institution but from insurance companies. So to me, the hearing was about women's rights and insurance companies and their right to obtain this coverage from insurance companies. ”

“ For a lot of students who, like me, are on public interest scholarships, that's practically an entire summer's salary. Forty percent of the female students at Georgetown Law reported to us that they've struggled financially as a result of this policy.
One told us of how embarrassed and just powerless she felt when she was standing at the pharmacy counter and learned for the first time that contraception was not covered on her insurance, and she had to turn and walk away because she couldn't afford that prescription. Women like her have no choice but to go without contraception. ”

“ I will keep my questions brief, because I wish to associate myself with the questions raised by my colleagues and their very valuable statements, especially in light of thanking you and a full appreciation for what you brought to the table today. Clearly, a woman should always have a seat at the table -- unquestionably, when the subject is women's health. ”

“ My mother's a strong and independent women who commands respect. She is also a woman of faith, and has been an independent pastor in a small Pentecostal church in Baltimore for all my life. I understand the importance of this issue to all women, including women of faith. That is why I commend the administration for the accommodation it made to allow women working at religiously affiliated organizations to obtain coverage for contraceptives directly through their health insurance companies. ”

“ In 65 percent of the cases at our school, our female students were interrogated by insurance representatives and university medical staff about why they needed prescriptions and whether they were lying about their symptoms. For my friend, and 20 percent of the women in her situation, she never got the insurance company to cover her prescription. Despite verification of her illness from her doctor, her claim was denied repeatedly on the assumption that she really wanted birth control to prevent pregnancy. ”

“ We as Georgetown LSRJ are here today because we're so grateful that this regulation implements the nonpartisan medical advice of the Institute of Medicine. I attend a Jesuit law school that does not provide contraceptive coverage in its student health plan. And just as we students have faced financial, emotional and medical burdens as a result, employees at religiously affiliated hospitals and institutions and universities across the country have suffered similar burdens. We are all grateful for the new regulation that will meet the critical health care needs of so many women. ”

“ If an overwhelming number of Catholic women of childbearing age -- and make -- stretch that from 14 to 50 or however older or younger you want to go -- are practicing birth control, then there has -- that has to be some message to the church that please don't expect employers and insurance companies to enforce an attitude that you have that isn't even accepted by the laity, churchgoing people themselves. ”

“ I think it's important, as I yield to the distinguished ranking member of the committee, to inform you, Sandra, that following your rejection by the Republicans from the panel, which the Democrats had suggested you as their witness, that we've heard from over 300,000 people saying we want women's voices to be heard on the subject of women's health, and urging the Republican leadership to make sure that happens.
Having no reason to believe that they will, we're having our own hearing today. I know you will persuade them with your testimony. ”

“ Fluke, we learned also that the insurance companies who will be providing, through the affordable health care, contraceptive coverage for women do not incur extra cost for this. You notice that you have not heard insurance companies pipe up and say, what are you doing to us? It turns out that according to the actuarial tables, it costs an insurance company more if it does not provide contraceptive coverage, because of the costs of childbirth and of the conditions attending childbirth. ”

“ As one other student put it, this policy communicates to female students that our school doesn't understand our needs. These are not feelings that male fellow students experience, and they're not burdens that male students must shoulder.
In the media lately, some conservative Catholic organizations have been asking, what did we expect when we enrolled at a Catholic school? We can only answer that we expected women to be treated equally, to not have our school create untenable burdens that impede our academic success. ”

“ One woman told us doctors believe she has endometriosis, but that can't be proven without surgery. So the insurance has not been willing to cover her medication, the contraception she needs to treat her endometriosis. Recently, another woman told me that she also has polycystic ovarian syndrome, and she's struggling to pay for her medication and is terrified not to have access to it. Due to the barriers erected by Georgetown's policy, she hasn't been reimbursed for her medication since last August. ”

“ Women employed in low-wage jobs without contraceptive coverage face this same choice.
And some might respond that contraception is accessible in lots of other ways. Unfortunately, that's just not true. Women's health clinics provide a vital medical service but, as the Guttmacher Institute has definitively documented, these clinics are unable to meet the crushing demand for these services. Clinics are closing, and women are being forced to go without the medical care they need. ”

“ Many of the women whose stories I've shared today are Catholic women. So ours is not a war against the church. It is a struggle for access to the health care we need. The president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges has shared that Jesuit colleges and universities appreciate the modification to the rule announced recently. Religious concerns are addressed, and women get the health care they need. ”

“ In terms of whether or not I was an appropriate witness, I felt insulted not for myself but for the women I wanted to represent, the women whose stories I wanted to convey to the committee and the women whose voices were silenced that day. And I've heard some people point out that there were two women on the less primary panel that day, and that's correct, but they were not women who were there to represent the women affected by this policy, and that matters. This isn't just about demographics. It's about the voices of the women who are affected by this policy. ”

“ We see all too often in Congress, in state houses and in the super PACs that are now dominating the debate on the airwaves, that those who would take a woman's right to choose, those who compel a woman to undergo medical procedures she does not want or need, those who would introduce a bill on the House floor to allow hospitals to deny pregnant women lifesaving care, are men. ”

“ They're students of many, many faiths. And I think that's true at most Jesuit and Catholic universities. These universities provide a high-quality education, and students want to go there for many reasons. I'm proud to say that on our campus we have university-sponsored centers and student organizations that examine Jewish law or, you know, there are groups for Muslim students and students of all faiths. And thankfully, all of those students are welcome, but unfortunately, they're all affected by this lack of contraception coverage. ”

“ But what I have learned from this experience is that -- you know, they say knowledge is power. And evidently the knowledge of how this regulation will benefit millions of women's lives is very powerful, and I believe to some, unfortunately, it's evidently very threatening. ”

“ I think another impact that it's really important that we all think about is that contraception, when it first became available, was a revolution in this country. It allowed women to enter employment and educational opportunities that had previously not been accessible because they were unable to control their reproduction in the same way. ”

“ We expected that our schools would live up the Jesuit creed of "cura personalis," to care for the whole person by meeting all of our medical needs. We expected that when we told our universities of the problems this policy created for us as students, they would help us. ”

“ The information that your testimony reveals today made your appearance at the hearing we were -- we had last Thursday even more important because it was new information. I would wager that most Americans, when they think of contraceptives, they think about their own lives -- and their own lives are not typical of the lives that you have related -- but do not have the kind of information that you brought forward this morning. ”

“ The reaction that Speaker Pelosi -- excuse me -- Leader Pelosi gave to her letter, over 300,000 men and women responded across this country, saying that this commonsense approach is appropriate, it's fair, it's equal, and that women should have a voice at the table. ”

“ The committee appeared to want to exploit the religious side of the issue by excluding the only witness that the Democrats -- that the Democrats requested. Sandra Fluke was essentially defined out of last week's hearing. In defining her out of the hearing, and having a hearing about only one side of a clearly two-sided issue, the majority managed to define out most American women. ”

“ And the majority -- Mr. Issa -- Chairman Issa said to us: You can only have one. And we said: We want Ms. Fluke. And they said no, and went on and invited the gentleman. We had already said that we would not accept him ”