Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) fired back at Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) during a hearing on Texas’s abortion law, accusing him of being “paternalistic.”
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday, Roy argued, “One word that has been consistently missing from colleagues on the other side of the aisle today is ‘heartbeat.'”
He added, “Because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t want to start with the concept of heartbeat.”
Roy suggested Democrats are “starting from the premise not from the starting place of life and trying to defend life, but from the standpoint of law with respect to our current abortion law.”
He claimed his Democratic colleagues do not want to talk about the bill “because they know it undermines their position.”
Jayapal acknowledged Roy is “right” to say Democrats have a different starting place.
She explained, “I start with the Constitution. I start with the Constitution and I start with the constitutional right that I have to make choices about my own body. And I also am very offended by the idea that anybody on your side would call me a murderer for making a choice about my health and my body that you cannot even begin to understand or know what I was dealing with.”
Jayapal continued, “So please, do not be paternalistic towards us as we make choices that are our choices. Nobody knows the circumstances we go through. Nobody understands what we have to think about. And by the way, nobody except us, the pregnant person, is actually the person that is affected along with anybody that we choose to bring in.”
Watch the video below:
Jayapal to Roy: I am also very offended that anybody on your side would call me a murderer for making a choice about my health and my body that you cannot even begin to understand… So please, do not be paternalistic towards us as we make choices that are our choices.. pic.twitter.com/LnmOnUPncO
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 4, 2021
She went on to say women who make that decision should not be “traumatized by being called a murderer. That is just outrageous in my mind.”
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard two challenges to the law banning abortions after six weeks. One challenge was brought by Texas abortion providers and the other was brought by the Department of Justice.
As NBC News notes, “Things did not go well for Texas.”
The outlet explained several conservative justices, including Brett Kavanaugh, appeared to be “skeptical.” NBC News reported the Supreme Court “will likely issue a ruling on two questions about Texas’ end-run around America’s constitutional right to abortion” in the next month.
