Hire More Heroes Act of 2015--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to share some remarks on what is going on with Planned Parenthood. Prior to sharing those remarks, I wish to inform my colleagues that we received some tragic news that has come out of Montana. I literally just got off the phone with Chairman Darrin Old Coyote with the Crow Tribe in Montana. I wish to take a moment to discuss the reports of a tragic shooting that has occurred on the Crow Reservation in Montana.

This afternoon we received word of a shooting in the community of Pryor, MT, on the Crow Reservation. I literally just got off the phone with Chairman Darrin Old Coyote before I got to the floor just to see how things were going and to be informed of the latest developments. There are two confirmed fatalities and at least one other injured individual who has been life-flighted to Billings.

My wife Cindy and I are deeply saddened by the news of today's tragic shootings in Pryor. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Pryor community, and the families of all victims are in our prayers. I understand this was a couple who had children and grandchildren and are well known in Pryor.

I am staying in close contact with Crow leaders, with local law enforcement, Federal officials, and community leaders during this time. It is our understanding and it has been confirmed that the suspect has been apprehended and is in custody.

My staff and all of the staffs here in Washington stand ready to help those affected by this tragedy. Our hearts break for the victims and for their families.

I ask my Senate colleagues to join the Montana delegation and all Montanans in keeping the community, the victims, and their families in their thoughts and prayers.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Mr. President, 655,306 kidneys is more than $49 million, which equates to 256 Lamborghinis; 327,653 hearts is more than $24.5 million, which equates to 128 Lamborghinis; 1,310,612 arms and legs is $98 million, which equates to 512 Lamborghinis--this is the envisioned price tag were every one of Planned Parenthood's 327,653 abortions performed last year to provide body parts and organs to harvest.

The utter callousness of Planned Parenthood in discussing the price of baby parts, as if handing over a menu, is clear evidence of the culture of an organization enriched through ghoulish and disturbing practices. This is a culture which protects tissue over life and lays out harvested organs as financial milestones toward a new car.

Planned Parenthood has worked its way into the American lexicon, becoming synonymous with women's health but hiding its abortion practices.

Planned Parenthood received $528 million of Federal taxpayer money last year alone. And when asked on the street, so few even know that Planned Parenthood does abortions. But now the veil has been lifted, exposing inexcusable and unconscionable behavior.

This organization, Planned Parenthood, performs more abortions than any other organization in our country. But now our own calloused hearts--the heart of our Nation--are shocked out of apathy, and we have a choice. We cannot accept the destruction and the selling of our children, to stare clearly into the face of the appalling and do nothing. We can allow our consciences to be moved and then remove the public endorsement of these actions. We can remove Federal taxpayer funding of the organization that has perpetuated such horrific actions.

I am proud to join Senator Joni Ernst and Leader McConnell, as well as 23 of my Senate colleagues, in the introduction of legislation to protect women's access to health services and defund Planned Parenthood. This bill ensures that funds allocated to Planned Parenthood will be redirected to other eligible entities to provide women's health care services.

Let me be very clear, so the information is clear about what this bill does and what it doesn't do. This bill ensures there is no reduction--not $1 of reduction--in overall Federal funding available to support women's health. This bill ensures the preservation of Federal funding for women's health

services which include important services of relevant diagnostic, laboratory, and radiology services, for well-child care, for prenatal and post partum care, for immunization, for family planning services, including contraception, sexually transmitted disease testing, and cervical and breast cancer screenings. Let me say again, this bill ensures the preservation of Federal funding for these very important services for women. This bill does not reduce any funding for women's health services.

This bill does not allow any Federal funds to go toward Planned Parenthood to continue its practice of trafficking baby parts. We bristled when we heard of an abortion doctor that left babies born alive to die, and we sensed justice when that same doctor was sentenced in a court of law for his crimes. Similarly, we shuddered as parents. Cindy and I have been married for 29 years. We have four children, two boys and two girls. We shuddered as parents at the idea of baby parts being harvested and sold in the context of equating that value to purchasing a Lamborghini. Will we see this to the same end?

We are a society. We are a nation that values life so much that in our Declaration of Independence it is clearly articulated that all have the right to life. We Democrats, Republicans, and all Americans must stand strong in the defense of those who are most vulnerable. We must advocate and be a voice for those who do not have a voice, for the most vulnerable in our society, including the unborn.

Over the last year, we have cringed at terrible images coming out of the Middle East. We have seen horrible images coming across social media, and we have called loudly for action. That was on soil thousands and thousands of miles away from America.

Today we cringe at terrible images that have occurred on our own soil. Nothing, not even a Lamborghini, is worth the lives of our children. Planned Parenthood has clearly articulated the value they have placed on babies' organs and limbs, but what they have failed to acknowledge is the value the American people know full well, and that is the value of our children, which is priceless.

I yield the floor.

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