Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. WAGNER. Madam Speaker, today I speak in support of H.R. 3134, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, to terminate taxpayer support of this deplorable organization.

I'd like to thank my good friend, Congresswoman DIANE BLACK for her leadership on this issue and her unwavering support for the lives of the unborn.

This summer, we have learned of the shocking nature of Planned Parenthood's practice of selling babies' hearts, lungs, livers, brains and other organs, often for a profit, to the highest bidder.

We were disturbed by what we learned about these practices, but perhaps even more so by the cold indifference in which countless employees dehumanized unborn children, effectively turning them into line item revenue sources, rather than human life in its most precious form.

After discovering the grotesque nature of these practices, the U.S. House of Representatives responded to these abhorrent activities by launching investigative hearings, the first of which began in the House Judiciary Committee last week.

Yet the very same week we began investigating the extent of the wrongdoing, the Executive Branch, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, awarded Planned Parenthood of Missouri, Iowa and Montana with over $1 million in taxpayer support.

The only response to this unthinkable action is for the U.S. House of Representatives, the legislative body with constitutional authority over federal funds, to pass legislation expressly prohibiting the federal government from supporting Planned Parenthood.

Madam Speaker, it is not enough for the U.S. House of Representatives to deny funds from a single continuing resolution or omnibus spending package.

Instead we must do so permanently and Congresswoman BLACK's legislation gives Congress an opportunity to continue our investigations into Planned Parenthood and work toward the day when we are no longer funding this abhorrent organization.

In the short term, there is much work to be done.

The U.S. House of Representatives is responsible for acting on behalf of the American people and investigating the extent to which Planned Parenthood's has profited from this activity.

Furthermore we must make sure that Planned Parenthood has not been engaging in illegal partial birth abortions.

We must determine whether or not Planned Parenthood has been breaking the law by altering abortion procedures to preserve certain organs for sale.

We must protect women and unborn children from these dangerous procedures that are designed to increase revenue for this group and profit from the destruction innocent life.

And perhaps most importantly, we must provide funding for other organizations that provide women's health care support and services--without also offering abortions.

And we must not continue taxpayer funding for groups like Planned Parenthood that believe they are above the laws of the United States.

We have a duty, as elected Representatives to stand up for the most vulnerable among us, to lend a voice to the voiceless, and fight back against injustice.

And so I lend my full support to H.R. 3134, so that we may defund Planned Parenthood and provide vulnerable women with better options for their health care needs.

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