Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, since we are considering this reconciliation bill, I looked up the word ``reconciliation'' because I thought maybe I don't know what the word means. They say that reconciliation is a process of making consistent or compatible.

Mr. Speaker, there is nothing in the bill before us that is either consistent or compatible with a woman's constitutional right to control her body. This bill is neither consistent nor compatible with a woman's human right to reproductive freedom.

The only thing this bill reconciles is the majority's machismo, Mr. Speaker, the stubborn resolve to deny women--especially the poorest women in our country--access to health care. Despite the claims that you have heard here on this floor that ``there is nothing to stop women from accessing health care,'' just let me point out a few facts.

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Mr. Speaker, 78 percent of Planned Parenthood's patients are at or below 150 percent of the poverty level, 41 percent of low-income women consider OB/GYN their primary source of health care, which Planned Parenthood provides, and in my own State, 14,000 women each year, many of whom are low income, do not have access to family planning services. I ask that we not pass this bill.

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