Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, a few months ago I asked my Republican colleagues if they had fallen down, hit their heads, and thought they woke up in the 1950s. Today I am back to check on my Republican colleagues because it appears they are suffering from a serious case of memory loss.

Before I call the doctors at Mass General, I have to say this really isn't a joke. I truly, honestly cannot come up with a better reason why my Republican colleagues have forced us back to the Senate floor once again to talk about another reckless scheme to defund Planned Parenthood. What is with you guys?

Remember this summer? Republicans launched a deliberate, orchestrated plan to defund women's health care centers. Let me just clarify. This was not a plan to defund abortions because for nearly 40 years the Federal Government has prohibited Federal funding for abortion. Nope. The plan was to defund Planned Parenthood health care centers that nearly 2.7 million people use every year, health care centers that one in five women across America has used for cancer screenings, pregnancy and STD tests, birth control, and other basic medical care.

To a lot of women and to a lot of men, the effort to defund Planned Parenthood health care centers was an overt attack on women's access to needed and legal health care. When the Republicans forced the Senate to vote on a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, it failed--and rightly so. That should have been the end of it, but Republican extremists just won't quit. In fact, they are doubling down.

Today Senate Republicans will use a special maneuver to hold another vote to defund Planned Parenthood, this time needing only 50 votes to pass instead of the usual 60. Even if they pass this reconciliation bill, President Obama has said he will veto it, but some Republican extremists vow to press on, using the most extreme tactics possible, taking the government hostage. They want to attach a rider to the government funding bill and threaten to shut down the government 10 days from now unless the Democrats agree to defund Planned Parenthood. Does that sound familiar? Well, that is because it is the very same tactic used in 2013 when Republicans shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act and flushed $24 billion down the drain--the very same tactic that former Speaker John Boehner admitted was a ``predictable disaster.''

Republicans may like playing politics with Planned Parenthood, but this isn't a game for the millions of women who depend on Planned Parenthood for basic medical care every year and who have nowhere else to go. Threatening to shut down the government is certainly not a game. It is not a game for cancer patients who could be turned away from clinical trials at NIH. It is not a game for small businesses that depend on our national parks being open for tourist visits.

It is not a game for seniors who need their Medicare paperwork processed or for the veterans whose benefits could be at risk, and it is not a game for the hundreds of thousands of Federal employees across this country--from park rangers to scientists to cafeteria workers and janitors at government buildings--who could be sent home 2 weeks before Christmas with no paycheck coming in.

This radical assault on women's health care and reproductive rights has gone on long enough. So in case my Republican colleagues are suffering from short-term memory loss, let me spell this out again loud and clear. We will not allow you to turn back the clock on women's health and women's rights. If you try to sneak provisions into the government funding bill to defund Planned Parenthood, we will fight you every step of the way, and we will win. That is not a threat; that is a promise.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

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