Prohibiting Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I would first like to enter into a colloquy with Senator Daines. This is an issue which many of us here in this body feel extremely passionate about. We will talk about Planned Parenthood and what is going on and the basic issue of children.
This has been spun multiple different ways, but really this is not about a lot of other issues other than one thing. This is about children--children who are recognizable outside of the womb, and once they have been carved up and set out on a table to be sold as parts, they can be plainly seen to be children.
So my conversation today will circle around a little bit about what we are doing, where we are headed, what this vote this evening is all about, and what this debate is that should begin here in America about what happens with Planned Parenthood.
So I would like to entertain a conversation with Senator Daines.
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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, this ongoing conversation has happened. I would like to be able to demonstrate what we are really up against and what this really looks like in practical terms.
I brought a chart with me here for when we talk about women's health because there is an accusation that is sitting out there that this is about cutting off access to women's health. The chart I have on the right shows all Planned Parenthood licensed mammogram facilities. They would be a dot on this map. If you were looking close at the map, you would see no dots on it. It is clear there is not a single one. The accusation is, over and over, that if women are going to get access to mammograms, they have to be able to get to Planned Parenthood. The dirty secret is they are referred to other locations. They recommend that you go get a mammogram, but Planned Parenthood doesn't do any of them. On the left, these are the 8,000-plus facilities--the dots on the map here--where you can actually get a mammogram. We are talking about taking funding from a location that refers patients to the location that actually does the mammogram.
This is about women's health, but it is also about the health of children. I have a very difficult time talking about things such as early childhood education on this floor with individuals who are passionate about early childhood education, but if that child was just a couple of years younger, they would have no issue with them being aborted and their body parts being sold.
That is the same child. That is the same child whose early childhood education we are passionate about. That is the same child whom we are passionate about in the Women, Infants, and Children funding to make sure that they get proper nutrition at birth. That is the same child. The only difference between the child in the womb and the child who is a preschooler is time. We just think it is important in this incredibly divisive issue of abortion that we treat this seriously as a nation.
What has happened in the last couple of weeks with the Planned Parenthood video coming out is that for the first time in a long time, this is not an invisible thing that is happening somewhere in secret. Now it is something that is actually happening where people can see it. I think our culture, for the first time in a while, is having to slow down and deal with the reality of this: Is it possible that this culture has been wrong, that this really is a child?
I spoke last week to a friend of mine. His child was born a year ago at 14 ounces. So 14 ounces was the birth weight. The child was born very, very premature. Their child is now 14 pounds, a year later, and doing extremely well. That 14-ounce child is a child that everyone sees now, but that 14-ounce child is exactly what Planned Parenthood was harvesting, was turning in the womb so they could crush the head to be able to gather the organs to be able to sell them.
As a culture, we have to deal with this one simple reality. That child is important. This is not about Cecil the lion. This is not about whales at SeaWorld. This is about children.
Maybe we as a culture should slow down and be able to answer that one simple question and at least for this moment with Planned Parenthood to say this to an organization where there are a couple of things that are hanging over them right now that are very serious. One is that it is not legal under Federal law to sell parts of a human for profit. Now, it is still yet to be determined what was done. But it is also not legal to be able to change the timing, procedure or method of an abortion to be able to gather organs to be sold. That is very clear in Federal law as well.
So if the method is changed, if the timing is changed, if the procedure has changed, specifically to harvest organs, that is not legal. In the videos, over and over you hear doctors talking about how they changed the method, how they used the ultrasound to turn the child around, how they used a different technique than they would have normally done because they wanted to be able to gather these organs for sale.
Those are serious accusations. These are children--children. We think it is entirely reasonable to say let's take the funding that has been committed to Planned Parenthood, which is the single largest abortion provider in the country--40 percent of their revenue comes from the Federal taxpayer, 40 percent. Let's take that funding and let's commit it to organizations that do full women's health--mammograms, testing, contraceptives, and the works--not just recommending it to others and also do abortions, but we would commit it to those individuals.
With that, I yield to the Senator from Louisiana in this colloquy. I see my colleague from California as well. I think she would also like to have a moment in our colloquy.
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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I wish to be able to continue this conversation because it is extremely important that we continue this as a nation.
I wish to make a couple of comments to you as well.
I am a dad with two daughters. I had something to do with the birth as well and was also there. I was there during the sonograms. My wife and I are extremely close. As a dad of two daughters, I am very passionate--not only about my own wife but about my mom, who is a cancer survivor. She is a multiple-time cancer survivor. I am passionate about my daughters having every single opportunity. So this is important to us as well. This is not just a women's issue. This is a men's issue as well because this is a family issue, and families are extremely important to all of us.
But I would say that community health centers don't serve 3.2 million people, like Planned Parenthood. Community health centers serve 23 million people around the country. There are around 650 Planned Parenthood locations around the country. There are 9,000 community health centers around the country. The Planned Parenthood facilities refer people to go get breast cancer screenings. The community health centers actually do that testing there. They actually do the mammograms there and not just say that you should get one.
So this is about women's health. It is also about the efficiency of what we are going to be about.
I would also say one other thing on this issue about ObamaCare and the community health centers. The community health centers were funded under ObamaCare, but they long preexisted before ObamaCare. Community health centers are not an invention of ObamaCare. There was a section of ObamaCare that funded some of them an additional amount, but they have been around for decades and decades. They are an extremely efficient form of health care, especially to those on Medicaid.
I yield to my friend and fellow Senator from Louisiana.
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