In Their Own Words: Speaker Nancy Pelosi on “Family Planning” Stimulus

Rory Cooper / January 26, 2009

Introducing a new feature, where we will give you the most surprising quote from the Sunday news shows. This week’s quote is courtesy of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos:

STEPHANOPOULOS: “Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?”

PELOSI: “Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those – one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.”

STEPHANOPOULOS: “So no apologies for that?”

PELOSI: “No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.”