Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, today, I would like to talk about the Republican effort to defund Planned Parenthood and restrict access to health care services.

Planned Parenthood is an invaluable resource for working Americans across the country. In my home state of Minnesota, Planned Parenthood operates 18 clinics, an online health center, and serves over 54,000 people every year.

If funding for Planned Parenthood is eliminated--as my Republican colleagues are demanding--the consequences would be devastating. The elimination of Planned Parenthood's services would mean that millions of women and men would lose access to primary care services, contraceptive services, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. These families--especially those in rural and high poverty areas--would have nowhere else to go.

My colleagues who support defunding Planned Parenthood say that working families could go elsewhere to receive care. This claim is false. Community Health Centers and other clinics that serve low-income Americans would not be able to provide care for all of the patients that would flood their offices should Planned Parenthood lose their federal funding.

Not only would defunding Planned Parenthood create barriers to accessing care, but it would limit the ability of women to achieve economic security. A recent Guttmacher Institute study showed that access to contraception helped women complete their education, keep or get a job, and take better care of their families. For example, the children of mothers who had access to contraception have higher family incomes and college completion rates. Moreover, research also shows that access to birth control contributed in a 30 percent rise in the number of women in skilled careers between 1970 and 1990. The positive effects of widespread access to reproductive and primary care services for women, families and Americans is immeasurable.

Unfortunately, the recent attacks on Planned Parenthood are nothing new. This is just another attack on working families and low-income women. In 1976, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment which restricts the use of federal funds for abortion. This policy directly harms the wellbeing and safety of low-income women, and limits their personal autonomy. It is a policy I strongly oppose. Three decades later, Republican talking points about Planned Parenthood ignore the very real impact defunding the organization will have on every day Americans--both on a large economic scale, and on the personal health and autonomy of Americans. It is a reminder that my Republican colleagues in Congress do not trust women to make decisions that are best for them. That must change. We must trust women to do what is best for their bodies and their families. Republican tactics also ignore the consequences of shutting down the government simply to make an ideological point.

Putting the wellbeing of millions working Americans on the line is unacceptable. Supporting policies that restrict women's--specifically low-income women's--personal autonomy is unacceptable. That is why I support the Planned Parenthood and the working families it serves.

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