Defunding Planned Parenthood

Floor Speech

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Ms. SIMON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the House and oppose the defunding of Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide.

The Republicans' cruel budget bill, which all Democrats opposed, included a provision to block Federal Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving Medicaid funds. This was a devastating choice that Republicans have made which will undoubtedly impact families across the Nation.

Planned Parenthood does not just provide birth control. Clinics provide basic healthcare exams, cancer screenings, and vaccinations. Women across this country today will walk into Planned Parenthood clinics across counties and States to receive both diagnostic and care for cervical cancer, hypertension, and basic medical care.

Earlier this year, the largest Planned Parenthood health center in the country opened in my district, named after my predecessor and champion of reproductive health and access, Congresswoman and now Mayor Barbara Lee. The Barbara Lee Oakland Health Center has over 19 exam rooms and is transit accessible, but the Republican budget bill will put Planned Parenthood centers like ours across the country at risk.

Mr. Speaker, 200 of the 600 Planned Parenthood clinics across the country may close and women will die. Planned Parenthood closures will disproportionately impact Black and Brown mothers, who already have a maternal mortality rate more than three times their White counterparts.

These cuts will disproportionately impact poor folks' access to reproductive care, since 40 percent of all births in this country are covered by the very Medicaid services that are now being gutted. These are matters, as I said before, of life and death for us in our district and for women across the country.

I was a young mother living in public housing in San Francisco when I had my first daughter at 19, but I was able to get by. I was able to go to school and raise a wonderful daughter and put her through college and law school because I had access to care and institutions that cared about my life.

If we want people to be healthy in this country and to participate in their communities and work, we need to open up choices, and we need to provide more opportunities instead of less. That is why I offered an amendment to the Republican budget reconciliation bill that would have protected the vital services of Planned Parenthood.

Republicans killed that amendment, but this will not stop our collective work, my work, to ensure that people in my district and around the country in rural and urban communities have the access that they so deserve. Their lives are depending on it.

Just this week, the district courts put a temporary pause on parts of the Republican bill that would defund Planned Parenthood. We will continue to fight back. Planned Parenthood is vital. It is vital to communities' health, and I will not stand by while it is defunded and while our health is devalued.

I was that young mother. We and our families, our children, deserve better.

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