Prohibiting Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, as the Presiding Officer knows, we will have a very important vote about an hour and a half from now on a bill that would eliminate taxpayer funding for abortions, consistent with four decades of U.S. law. Contrary to the comments made by our friend from Oregon who just spoke, rather than withhold those funds, it would take that same amount of money and redirect it for women's health services and actually give them better access to health services at the same time. In other words, this legislation will fund women's health care but not abortions on the taxpayers' dime.

I particularly want to thank Senator Ernst, Senator Lankford, Senator Fischer, and Senator Paul for their leadership on this important issue. This is the beginning of the fight to regain America's conscience and the fight to restore the law that has been on the books for 40 years when it comes to taxpayer funding of abortions.

We all understand that the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade has held that abortion is a right. But we also know that there is a rare area where there is a consensus between pro-choice and pro-life people, such as myself, and that is that we draw the line--and have since 1976--when it comes to taxpayer funding of abortions. Of course, what brought us to this point most immediately was that our collective conscience was shocked by videos depicting Planned Parenthood executives discussing the harvesting and sale of the organs of unborn babies--an abhorrent, disgusting practice that we cannot ignore. Perhaps the only thing more shocking than the actual dismembering of unborn children for sale is the cavalier attitudes by the Planned Parenthood staff who seem to have sacrificed their humanity and show so little regard for the sanctity of human life.

What was shown in these videos is an outrage, and it demands our action. Many of our colleagues from across the aisle have cited their own disapproval of what has been presented in these videos. They will be given an opportunity at 5:30 when we vote on the motion to proceed to get on this bill to demonstrate that their actions actually match their words.

According to one report, the junior Senator from Indiana said he found the comments by Planned Parenthood personnel in the video disgraceful. Similarly, the junior Senator from Virginia said that he found the videos ``extremely troubling.'' When asked about the videos last week, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also called them ``disturbing.'' And they are.

Like our recent successful bipartisan efforts to fight the scourge of human trafficking, we have a rare opportunity to make a difference and address the moral imperative to defend those who cannot defend themselves.

It is important--because I have already heard some of our colleagues misrepresent what is in the bill--to remind everybody what this bill actually does. First and foremost, it eliminates Federal funding for one of the country's largest abortion providers--Planned Parenthood. In fiscal year 2014, Planned Parenthood performed 327,653 abortions. At the same time, Planned Parenthood received $528 million from Federal taxpayers.

Planned Parenthood reported revenue in fiscal 2014 of $1.1 billion. In other words, almost half of its income came from tax dollars from the Federal Government at the same time they performed 327,653 abortions.

You will hear some of our friends who are defending Planned Parenthood say: Oh, well, this is different because the money is kept separate. But we know that money that comes from the Federal Government can keep the lights on and keep the doors open so the abortions can continue to be performed. It is simply a fiction to claim that Federal tax dollars are not supporting conduct proscribed by the Hyde amendment for the last 40 years.

We don't stop there, though, when it comes to this legislation. As I mentioned at the outset, we would actually redirect the money to ensure that taxpayer dollars that once went to Planned Parenthood now go to provide for women's health, such as in thousands of community health centers across the country.

I am a big fan of community health centers because they really represent one-stop shopping when it comes to primary health care needs. The ironic thing is we can actually provide better access and more access for women by transferring the money from Planned Parenthood to community health centers and other nonabortion providers. For example, in my State, we have as many as eight times more community health centers as there are Planned Parenthood providers. We can provide women with eight times more opportunity to see that their health care needs are taken care of and at the same time respect the law that prohibits taxpayer dollars to be used for abortions and to support abortions.

In fact, according to data from 2013--the most recently available nationwide--every State in the country has more community health centers than Planned Parenthood clinics.

Since I didn't want to mention all 50 of them here--that would be a little overwhelming and be hard to read at the same time--I just picked out two States, along with the nationwide statistic--13 community health centers to every 1 Planned Parenthood provider that would still be able to provide primary health care services to women under this legislation. But if we look at Indiana, for example, we would have four times more providers under this legislation. In the State of Virginia, we would have 20 times more providers by simply defunding Planned Parenthood, the abortion provider, and using tax dollars and transferring that money to community health centers. We can actually provide greater access for women's health care.

Let's be clear, because I suspect, as I have already heard when I came to the floor, that there will be a lot of misrepresentation about what is in the bill. We need to be clear. This legislation defends women's health and ensures women access across the country to essential health services.

As I said a few moments ago, in many respects the debate that we are having was already decided in 1976, the year of the Hyde amendment, named after Henry Hyde, which, as my colleagues all know, prevents taxpayer dollars from funding abortions, except in rare circumstances. We talked about that a lot during the course of the anti-human trafficking bill. But this has been the law of the land for 40 years.

I strongly encourage all of our colleagues to vote to get on this bill. An organization that so callously reduces our most vulnerable to spare parts for sale has no business receiving any money from the Federal taxpayers. If people want to raise money from other private sources to support this effort, then let them do that. But tax dollars are not available and should not be available to fund Planned Parenthood's abortion practice--again, the largest single abortion provider in America.

While many of our colleagues on the other side have agreed that the vile practices that we witnessed in these videos are disturbing, still some have tried to put off having this discussion at all. I think what would be the biggest failure on our part--no matter what the outcome of our vote on the underlying legislation--would be to fail to have this discussion and this debate for the American people to hear so we can get their input. The real travesty would be if we shut off debate because 60 Senators didn't see fit to vote to get on the bill. That vote will be in roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes.

There are others who say we simply have more important things to do. I disagree. For example, the senior Senator from New York said consideration of this bill was ``wasting valuable time'' and that we should instead ``[start] urgent budget negotiations.''

Really? Really? I hardly know what to say. To those who share my disgust for the conduct depicted in these videos and who agree they are disgraceful, disturbing, and extremely troubling, how can you now turn around and refuse to vote with us to get on this legislation so we can have that discussion, so we can have that debate, and so we can vote our conscience? If your conscience is shocked by the footage in these videos, I really can't see how anybody could possibly vote no on this legislation at 5:30 when we vote to get on the bill.

Somehow, we as a nation have been lulled into a sense of complacency and have become somehow so desensitized to these barbaric practices depicted in these videos that they no longer stimulate us to act. But today we have a chance on behalf of the American people, the people we collectively represent, to act and to act in a way that protects the most vulnerable.

I yield the floor.

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