Women's Public Health and Safety Act

Floor Speech

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Madam Speaker, I am in opposition to this ill-conceived legislation brought forward from my good friend and colleague from Wisconsin.

I realize that good people can differ on topics, and I have been stunned by some of the discussion that has occurred on the floor today with regard to the racist roots of Planned Parenthood, with regard to so-called states' rights.

I can tell you that, as an African American and as a woman, I have heard the term ``states' rights'' used in ways that were not very healthy and safe for me as an African American woman. There is nothing healthy and safe about a bill that would deny women their constitutional and human rights to control their own reproduction--to get birth control, to be protected against STDs, or to have an abortion.

I know many people in this body are fond of reality shows, but in reality, a woman is fertile for 30 to 40 years of her life, and there is nothing healthy about becoming pregnant every year for 30 to 40 years. I am one of nine kids, and that is not a healthy scenario for many women.

The reality is that this would have an adverse impact on some of the poorest women, and many of them African American, in this country. Seventy-eight percent of Planned Parenthood patients live at 150 percent or lower of the poverty level.

The reality is that 60 percent of all Americans do not want to see Planned Parenthood defunded. It is not in the interest of public health and safety for these women to be denied this basic health care.

Madam Speaker, we have heard about these films that are not real at all. They have been doctored, edited, and they are revisionist tapes, all in pursuit of defunding the premier organization that protects women's health.

With regard to the other community health centers, I am glad to know that my colleagues are interested in funding those centers. But this bill even puts them at risk because any ancillary service related to abortion can be deemed as unfitting for reimbursement under the Medicaid program.

My last point, Madam Speaker, is that we have seen the flexibility that States have used. We saw in Indiana where they defunded Planned Parenthood and, as a result, we saw a pandemic of HIV infestations in that State.

So I would say before I yield back, Madam Speaker, that I urge my colleagues to not go for the appeasement of the Anti-Choice Caucus so that we don't shut the government down, to use women as a gambit in this political battle.

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