Prohibiting Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, thanks to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the Senate is unfortunately taking a vote on whether critical health care services should be taken away from millions of women across the country. We will be voting on whether a young woman should be able to go to a provider she trusts to get birth control, whether cancer screenings should be more or less available to women across the country, and whether the U.S. Senate is going to turn back the clock on women's health.

To me--and to many Democrats and even some Republicans who want to help women get the care they need--it is deeply disappointing that we are even having this debate because extreme Republicans have attacked Planned Parenthood and women's health so many times before--on the budget, the highway bill, the Affordable Care Act, and even on the legislation I introduced last week to help wounded veterans start families. That is right. Some of my Republican colleagues were more interested in scoring political points with their extreme base by picking fights over women's health than they were in helping our wounded veterans.

Unfortunately, it is clear they will jump at any opportunity to put politics before women's health. The bill we are talking about this evening that would defund Planned Parenthood is just more of the same.

My Republican colleagues who support this bill claim it would simply redirect funding for Planned Parenthood to other providers. Let's keep in mind that 2.7 million people visited Planned Parenthood for their health care last year, and 1 out of every 5 women in the United States will visit a Planned Parenthood center at some point in her life. So Planned Parenthood is a critical source of health care in communities across this country, and claiming that other providers can simply absorb those patients is like saying you can pour a bucket of water into a cup. It will not work. Instead, what this bill would actually do is take access to birth control, cancer screenings, STD tests, and other important preventive care away from women. It would leave families and communities without trusted, quality health care providers they rely on, and it would mean that in the United States of America in the 21st century the tea party gets to tell women what doctors they can or cannot go to.

I am not going to let that happen, and I know many of my colleagues here today agree. So this legislation is going nowhere, and, just as we have every other time they have tried these partisan tactics, we are sending a very clear message to those who choose political pandering over women's health.

Political attacks and threats to shut down the government are not going to get in the way of women's access to the care they need--not on our watch. Why? Because we know millions of women and their families are counting on us, and we are going to keep standing up for them.

I will close today by sharing the story of a woman from my home State of Washington. Shannon is from Tumwater, WA. When she was a teenager, she experienced ``unbearable pain'' and went to see a doctor to find out whether she had endometriosis. That is a serious disease that can keep women from having children if it goes untreated. Her doctor told her she was far too young to have endometriosis and sent her home. A few years later when she turned 18, Shannon tried again, and this time she went to a Planned Parenthood center. There, her provider confirmed that she did indeed have endometriosis. Her lesions were removed, and Shannon got the medication to manage her condition, thanks to Planned Parenthood. She no longer has to live with chronic pain, and now she is the proud mother of a little girl.

Shannon said, ``My daughter is truly a gift, and I really have Planned Parenthood to thank for her.''

So today, as many Members on the other side of the aisle vote to take health care away from women and their families, as they try as hard as they can to appeal to the extreme fringe of their party no matter the cost, I hope they think of women like Shannon whose lives are happier and healthier because of the services Planned Parenthood provides to so many communities in our country. That is whom I will be thinking about. I am very proud to vote no tonight and will continue to keep fighting for women, their health care, and their rights.

I yield the floor.

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