Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Chair, I move to strike the last word.

The Acting CHAIR. The gentlewoman is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We were hired by our neighbors in our hometowns to come up to Washington and fight for jobs and help get the country back on the road to recovery. But instead, this Republican Congress is taking an extreme right turn right back into the dark ages because they are targeting a very important initiative that has provided fundamental health services to women since 1970 to say no more will women that depend on family planning in the United States of America have that lifeline any longer--that lifeline for breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, the annual Pap smear, for contraceptives. We can't go back to the dark ages--and we're not going to let you.

As often as it has been misstated on this floor tonight, none of the money for family planning goes to pay for abortions. This is their false battle cry. In effect, what they're doing is they want to cut off the lifeline for mothers and daughters, aunts, your friends, your neighbors who sometimes don't have a place to go to afford that important doctor's visit. There seems to be little if any empathy for these women from the Republican side of the aisle, as they propose no alternative for providing this care, and they don't seem to realize or, frankly, care that unintended pregnancies will rise if this program is abolished.

Cutting off these funds and eliminating this care for women will not stop abortion, which is their claim. Only family planning will stop abortion. The major consequence of wiping out title X, which really means that all-important trip to the doctor's office for a woman who doesn't have any place else to go for their breast cancer screening, their annual exam, the only consequence, major consequence, will be eliminating health care for millions of women while also increasing the bill to taxpayers. For every public dollar invested in family planning, taxpayers save $4.

So attacking reproductive health care for women may make for very interesting politics, but it doesn't prevent unintended pregnancy. It doesn't create jobs. It doesn't improve the economic situations of our hometowns. And that's what we should be debating for hours and hours tonight.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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