Expressing Opposition ot HR 3504 and HR 3134
Floor Speech
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Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I want to register my deep
concerns with a pair of bills, H.R. 3504 and H.R. 3134, that were
considered by the House last week. Although I was unable to be present
to vote against these measures due to a medical appointment related to
my recovery from two recent hip surgeries, I remain steadfastly opposed
to both bills.
I am a strong supporter of increasing access to family planning and
women's healthcare services. H.R. 3134, passed in the House last week
by a vote of 241-187, prohibits the federal government from funding
Planned Parenthood health centers for one year. This legislation is
nothing more than a punitive and intrusive attack on the essential and
wide-ranging healthcare services that Planned Parenthood provides. If
this bill was signed into law, it would cut off essential health
services for millions of women, men, and families across the United
States.
Planned Parenthood serves a total of 2.7 million patients per year.
It is a central provider of equitable access to healthcare for both men
and women of underserved communities across the United States. One in
five American women will use Planned Parenthood services at some time
during her life. In Washington State, more than 103,000 women and men--
nearly 65 percent of whom are at or below the poverty line--use Planned
Parenthood for their family planning and basic health needs. If this
legislation succeeds, millions of Americans will be stripped of this
access.
Anti-choice rhetoric and controversy has surrounded federal funding
for Planned Parenthood because about three percent of the services they
provide include abortion services. Current law already denies Medicaid
coverage for these services by almost completely barring federal
funding, except in very limited circumstances. Ninety percent of the
services Planned Parenthood provides are preventative health services,
including lifesaving cancer screenings, blood pressure checks, birth
control, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and
educational efforts to avoid unwanted pregnancies and prevent
abortions. Failing to fund Planned Parenthood will greatly diminish
access to these services for low income women, men, and families in
need of affordable healthcare and preventative screenings.
H.R. 3504 was also passed in the House last week. This bill
legislation attempts to advance the anti-choice, anti-health agenda by
interfering with important and difficult medical judgments that should
be left up to health professionals. If enacted into law, this bill
would apply scare tactics like onerous criminal penalties on doctors
and clinicians. These penalties are punitive and will intimidate women
away from seeking safe, legal, standardized, evidence-based care. This
legislation is not a restatement of current ``born-alive'' law which
contained language assuring no interference in a women's right to
terminate a pregnancy. Instead, this bill takes that assurance away
from women. This effort signifies the latest attempt by extreme
Republicans to limit women's access to safe, legal abortions. I
strongly oppose this legislation that politicizes women's health and
interferes in the doctor-patient relationship
Mr. Speaker, I stand with women across the United States to defend
their access to comprehensive reproductive health options, and commend
Planned Parenthood for leading in this effort.
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