Prohibiting Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, even in the greatest deliberative body in this Nation and likely the world, there are moments of profound sadness and regret, and this moment is one for me. I am deeply dismayed that the Republican leadership is engaging in an effort--an effort doomed to fail in just a couple of hours--to defund probably the most trusted provider of health care for women in the United States of America.

It is misguided because there are so many significant issues that should be front and center for this body: making sure that we invest in our roads and bridges, making sure that we improve our education system, making sure that we keep faith with our veterans. So many of them are going nowhere because of this partisan paralysis and gridlock. Dismayingly to the American people, that has prevented real action. I regret that we are, in effect, distracted from those goals and those missions that the American people expect us to fulfill.

Once again, many of my colleagues across the aisle have aligned themselves with the most extreme of the anti-choice movement to undermine access to critical health care services for women--for millions of women in this country and thousands in Connecticut who depend on Planned Parenthood for basic health care screenings, cancer diagnosis, family planning, and contraception services, which distinguish it as one of the most trusted health care providers in the United States.

It is the Republican leadership--not just a few Senators but the Republican leadership--that has set up this vote to defund Planned Parenthood. So instead of the Senate moving forward to provide additional health care services to women, it has engaged in this onslaught and assault on women's health care, taking a step back with legislation that is really--let me say bluntly--a political charade, a stunt, a bill or legislative measure that will go nowhere and is as much a sham for the supporters as it is for opponents. The fact is Planned Parenthood provides health care services to women across this country. Only 3 percent of its activity relates to abortion. So 97 percent of what it does is to provide screenings, diagnosis, and family planning. If this measure goes through, millions of women will be undiagnosed with cervical and breast cancer, millions of women will be denied access to contraception and family planning, and millions of young women will be denied the kind of education they need to prevent pregnancy.

It is in preventing pregnancy that so often Planned Parenthood is engaged, and to make it safe, legal, and rare. Eliminating $528 million from the largest women's health care provider in the country would create a public health crisis. Pure and simple, a public health crisis would be the inevitable consequence of this measure to defund Planned Parenthood. Of the 2.7 million women Planned Parenthood serves every year, 78 percent are low-income women who depend on Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening, testing for sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis B vaccines, family planning counseling, education on how to recognize and leave abusive relationships, domestic violence, referrals to other medical specialists, and many other essential services that would be unaffordable and inaccessible without Planned Parenthood.

Over half of Planned Parenthood's clinics serve women in medically underserved areas or in health provider shortage areas. So 13 of Connecticut's 17 women's health centers serve women in rural or medically underserved parts of my State. Defunding Planned Parenthood would mean 64,000 of my constituents could lose access to quality health services.

Because there is no network of health care providers with the capacity to serve this population if Planned Parenthood is denied funding, millions of women--particularly Medicaid recipients--would lose access to quality health services, and the result would be a public health crisis. That is the stark reality of these numbers and statistics. Dry and abstract as they are, they stand for real-life consequences--real women whose lives will be inevitably transformed for the worse if this measure were to pass.

Beyond the din of this place that so often consumes us--the confusion and the noise--there are real people whose lives will be affected by these kinds of measures and whose lives are affected even by the effort to defund Planned Parenthood because of the uncertainty and doubt that it creates.

These real people are women such as Elizabeth A., who said:

When I didn't have health insurance 3 years ago, I went to Planned Parenthood where I had access to safe, affordable, reproductive health care. I still go there for my health needs! I was able to get STD testing and birth control when I couldn't afford it anywhere else.

Rachel S. of Naugatuck, CT:

Birth control helped my husband and me put off having a family until we were financially ready to care for a child. The effects of pregnancy, both physically and financially, mean that free or low-cost birth control is an important factor in a successful future for both the woman and her family.

And Nicole B. of West Haven, CT:

I come to Planned Parenthood because it is a safe place to get birth control and exams. Everyone is helpful and non-judgmental. The city needs a place like this and many women benefit from Planned Parenthood services.

These stories are from real people whose lives we in the Senate are supposed to care about. I care about them because I know so many women whose lives have been affected by Planned Parenthood. I know so many of the staff and dedicated professionals who work at Planned Parenthood clinics.

One spoke to me on Saturday afternoon--one of the low points last week during the controversy that has enveloped Planned Parenthood--about how she was inspired and revived by simply passing by a room where one of the counselors was talking to a group of young people, both men and women, about the education that was important to them as far as preventing unwanted pregnancy and how seeing Planned Parenthood at work in that setting--the real work of providing health care and education--inspired her to keep going despite those difficulties.

The fact is that over and over my constituents, the people of Connecticut, have told me they choose Planned Parenthood because of the professionalism, dedication, and nonjudgmental approach to their patients. Many view Planned Parenthood as a safe space to come when they need advice, when they need medical examinations.

If Republicans succeed in defunding it, women will be without their most trusted health care provider. So many of them are relying on it because it is trustworthy, professional, and dedicated to them--first and foremost to them.

Today I stand with Planned Parenthood and the thousands and thousands of women in Connecticut and around the country who benefited from their services. I will vehemently oppose these efforts to allow a secretive and dishonest group to discredit and to dismay so many. They have manipulated the facts, put employees and volunteers in danger, and have eliminated the organization's ability to provide essential services. But the important point is that we resist this effort today to defund an organization that has provided so many services to so many people in need and has enabled this Nation to avert a public health crisis that will ensue if we follow this misguided effort, and that we follow our better instincts and make sure that we keep the faith with women who need health care in this Nation.

I yield the floor.

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am tempted to say there they go again, because we have seen this attack on women's health care again and again and again. It is a very weak excuse to defund Planned Parenthood.

We know 97 percent of Planned Parenthood's activities have nothing to do with abortion. Let's stand strong for women's health care to protect women against cancer, against hepatitis, against sexually transmitted diseases. Eighty percent of Planned Parenthood's clients have nowhere else to go for those vital services. We will not tolerate this attack on women's health care under the guise of stopping abortion.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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