Setting Forth the Congressional Budget for the United States Government

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, since 1976, Federal law has prohibited the use of Federal funds--taxpayer dollars--for abortion.

Section 1008 of the Public Health Service Act explicitly States that title X funds ``shall not be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.''

But, as often happens in Federal law, there is a loophole: Federal regulations do allow abortion facilities to be colocated within clinics that are following the title X rules, and those rules are providing healthcare to women.

The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act would close that loophole by prohibiting the awarding of these funds to entities that perform abortions or that provide funds to entities that perform abortions.

The bill allows for exceptions to be made in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother. It would also require HHS to provide an annual report to Congress listing entities receiving grant funds, and specifying which of those grantees performed abortions under the exceptions.

This is not a big change. As I said, this is a simple change. It is one that would add to the protections of women and their unborn children. It is a statutory fix that will redirect tens of millions of dollars in funding to providers, our community care clinics that are offering comprehensive healthcare services for women.

88, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to much of what my colleague had to say about we are in the middle of a pandemic. Families are struggling. Yes, indeed, that is very true. And if you want to talk about making healthcare services more available to more women, then, yes, indeed, what you want to do is make certain that these taxpayer funds are not used to provide abortion services, that these funds are going to the community clinics that are the ones that are providing the screenings.

Many of the Planned Parenthood clinics do abortions. They refer women to the community clinic around the corner for the cancer screenings, for the breast exams, for the Pap smears. So there should be agreement that, yes, individuals should have access to this healthcare. And if you say: If you perform abortions, you cannot have these title X dollars, then the hundreds of community clinics that are access points to healthcare for women in underserved communities, these funds would be made available to them.

I think we also have to talk about rights and privileges and touch on that for just a moment. I fully appreciate, we all have different opinions, and it is wonderful that we live in a country that allows freedom of speech, where we can express our difference of opinions.

What we do have to realize is this, that we have in this country 1,700 lives lost every day to abortion--1,700 voiceless and vulnerable--and to me that is just an absolutely heartbreaking stat that these unborn children do not have the opportunity to enjoy that right to life. I find that very sad.

As I said, this legislation would make certain that all of this money goes to these health clinics but not to a clinic that provides abortion service.

This is the kind of access that, yes, indeed, many families would appreciate having more access and more services available to women at their community clinics.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source