This may have been the 33rd time I spoke on this issue on the House floor.

The subject was abortion, specifically the circumstances when the Medicaid program will pay for the procedure.

The language in the budget bill is a compromise that was reached before I was elected in 1982.

Every year, it seems, there’s an attempt to change it.

Pro-choice members tried to broaden the language when I first got here but failed.

Not any more…

“This has nothing to do with access to abortion,” declared a supporter this morning of an amendment that would severely limit when the state would pay for an abortion.

“It has everything to do with access,” I responded.

“As Justice Ginsburg has pointed out, women of means will always be able to obtain an abortion,” I continued. “Poor women, on the other hand, must overcome obstacles to having the procedure.”

There were knowing responses on the faces of several women legislators as I spoke.

The amendment failed, 55-83.