Women's Health Care

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I want to spend just a few minutes to discuss women's health care because I believe women's health care in America is in trouble--very deep trouble. It is in trouble in Congress, it is in trouble in the courts, and it is in trouble in our statehouses. In these bodies, I think there is a serious risk to women's access to affordable, high-quality health care. There is an assault on women's right to choose their own physicians and their own providers, and that assault is wrong. Drip by drip, State by State, the assault goes on.

The latest example is in Florida, where lawmakers seem to be heading down the same road that Texas and Louisiana have traveled, restricting the choices of women. This all began with a Texas law, HB2, that has been challenged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Arguments were heard just last week. HB2 backers have argued the law is about protecting women's health. My view is that is pretty much fiction. HB2 has very little to do with women's health. It is a thinly veiled scheme to block women's health choices with unjustifiable requirements for abortion clinics. The AMA and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists--people who obviously have expertise on this issue--have said very clearly in a legal brief, an amicus brief, that the restrictions are ``contrary to accepted medical practice and are not based on scientific evidence.'' Despite the advice of the American Medical Association and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Texas went ahead with the law anyway. If it stands, the number of clinics that provide abortion care will drop by more than three-quarters. Now HB2 backers say it is about preventing complications from abortion. Yet they ignore other procedures-- colonoscopies, for example, that have much higher rates of complications. HB2 backers say women who live where these clinics have shuttered could go to other States, but the fact is, we are hearing that really isn't an option for so many women.

Louisiana just passed its own version of HB2. Just yesterday the news came down that legislators in Florida have passed a similar measure. The Florida bill goes one dangerous step further by going after funding for Planned Parenthood. Attacks on Planned Parenthood aren't anything new, not in statehouses like Tallahassee or here in the Congress. When you threaten Planned Parenthood in this way, you are going far beyond restricting access to abortion. Here is the list of vital women's health care services which have absolutely nothing to do with abortion, and these services which have nothing to do with abortion are under threat: pregnancy testing, birth control, prenatal services, HIV testing, cancer screenings, vaccinations, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, basic physical exams, treatment for chronic conditions, pediatric care, hospital and specialist referrals, adoption referrals, nutrition programs.

The fact is, this assault on women's health care is going to hit disadvantaged, struggling women hard across our country. There are countless women across America enrolled in Medicaid who rely on Planned Parenthood and similar programs for their basic, essential medical care. It is their first line of defense for basic health care, particularly in rural communities in rural Oregon. The women know and trust their doctors at those clinics. Without those clinics, they aren't going to have anywhere to turn for their care. If you are working an hourly job, you have kids to care for on your own, it is pretty clear you are not going to find an easy way to take a day off work and travel far away for medical care. Yet these are the kind of laws that are being passed in States across America. These anti-woman laws are unfair and they are dangerous.

This will not be the last time I come to the floor to discuss this. My view is access to health care for women in this country is in trouble, and a number of the services I have talked about are essentially part of what is a constitutional right--a constitutional right. It doesn't just mean it is a constitutional right if you are well-off. It is a constitutional right because the U.S. Supreme Court has said it, and I intend to defend that constitutional right. I intend to do everything I can to build bipartisan support so that instead of women's health services being in deep trouble as I described today, women can know that those essential services are available for them across the country.

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