Providing for Consideration of H.R. Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Pregnant Students' Rights Act; and Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Bureau of Land Management Relating to Public Land Order No. 7917 for Withdrawal of Federal Lands; Cook, Lake, and Saint Louis Counties, Mn

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, I thought maybe I was in the wrong place when I heard the debate when I walked in today. I do want to add that I agree it is not pro-life to cut services to families and to make childcare more expensive. These bills are anti-choice.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to these two deceptively titled bills: H.R. 6945, the Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act, which allows Health and Human Services funds to be sent to crisis pregnancy centers, and H.R. 6359, the Pregnant Students' Rights Act, which unfairly limits the information it requires colleges to provide to students and the students it chooses to support.

Most crisis pregnancy centers are sham organizations. They have the sole purpose of advancing an anti-choice agenda. They routinely engage in deceptive advertising to get people in the doors, hold themselves out as medical clinics, and then use blatant misinformation about the services they provide.

For example, a pregnancy resource center in Pennsylvania told a pregnant woman that she had a miscarriage, so she left. Then, later, she was still experiencing pregnancy symptoms, so she went to a real doctor who told her she still had a viable pregnancy.

This deception is wrong on so many levels, and these centers should be held accountable, not receive government funds.

I introduced the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act to prohibit unfair or deceptive advertising about abortion services and services that crisis pregnancy centers do and do not offer.

Also, pregnant students deserve access to medically accurate, comprehensive planning resources and a full range of reproductive healthcare options. Yet, the Pregnant Students' Rights Act only requires colleges to provide information about carrying a child to term.

I offered an amendment to this bill that would have colleges also provide comprehensive, medically accurate information to students, but my Republican colleagues rejected it.

Deciding whether and when to have a child is a deeply personal--

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Ms. BONAMICI. Deciding whether and when to have a child is a deeply personal decision. It should not be made by politicians, and it certainly should not be made by anti-choice extremists.

The biased, anti-choice efforts underpinning these two bills will make it harder for students to make informed decisions about what is best for them. They are the ones who should be making these decisions. Promoting partisan legislation that fails to address the full healthcare needs of students does not lead to academic success.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing these bills, reject H.R. 6359 and H.R. 6945, and instead stand up for those who are making that personal decision themselves.

Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, I know a lot of people who work in these centers. They are honest, dedicated, hardworking people who care about the pregnant mothers and the unborn children. I think that the attacks on them are unfounded, unwarranted, and unprofessional.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers on the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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