Newsletter: Defunding Planned Parenthood: A Question of Morality

Statement

The American people now know that Planned Parenthood treats unborn children like commodities, callously bargaining about the price of organs over lunch.

The question now before Congress is whether our country should continue subsidizing Planned Parenthood at a cost exceeding $500 million a year.

My constituents and my conscience say absolutely and emphatically no. Continued support of Planned Parenthood condones these gruesome practices on behalf of the American taxpayer, undermining our commitment to behave morally as a nation.

Last week, Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden testified before the House Judiciary Committee about having survived failed abortions. These remarkable women appeared before us as flesh-and-blood expressions of life's potential.

In 1977 both were subjected to late-term saline infusion abortions, intended to scald them to death in the womb. But both were born alive. Thanks to nurses who got them immediate care, they survived.

Ms. Jessen has overcome cerebral palsy, saying, "I was never supposed to hold up my head or walk. I do." She asked, "How many children have died, and been dismembered, and their parts sold, for our ego, our convenience, and our promiscuity?"

Ms. Ohden founded the Abortion Survivors Network, where she has contacted more than 200 survivors. She told the committee, "I'm here today to share my story to not only highlight the horror of abortion taking place at Planned Parenthood, but to give a voice to other survivors like me, and most importantly, to give a name, a face, and a voice to the hundreds of thousands of children who will have their lives ended by Planned Parenthood this year alone."

Today, I had the opportunity to uphold life in two bills that passed the House. I voted for the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which places a one-year moratorium on federal funding. The bill shifts that money to other women's health centers, ensuring that no one will suffer for lack of access to quality care. In Idaho alone, we have 76 federally qualified health centers. Planned Parenthood has just three Idaho clinics.

I also was pleased to vote for a second bill, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which imposes criminal penalties on medical professionals who fail to try and save a child born alive after an attempted abortion. The law already requires assistance to babies born alive during an abortion procedure; this bill puts teeth into those laws and promises to save more lives.

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