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Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 18, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Abortion

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Ms. DeGETTE. Madam Speaker, Planned Parenthood provides basic health services to millions of Americans: Pap smears, breast cancer screenings, family planning, and birth control. In fact, there were over 4 million visits to Planned Parenthood clinics last year, and over 90 percent of this was basic women's health care and not abortions.

So why are we talking about this today? Why are we talking about this legislation?

Planned Parenthood does these services and no Federal funds are spent on abortion services that Planned Parenthood does provide, but yet the majority will take the radical step of denying women the basic health care they need. This radical agenda is wrong. It is wrong for American women, and it is wrong for us when the Federal budget expires in just 13 days.

Madam Speaker, I, too, have reviewed the videotapes. Our committee reviewed the videotapes, and, as Ms. Castor said--and it bears repeating--no wrongdoing was shown. There are no criminal charges. There are no charges at all that are pending whatsoever against Planned Parenthood.

Madam Speaker, yesterday in the Energy and Commerce Committee, my Republican colleagues in their radical effort went so far as to show a photo of a stillborn baby, implying that that baby was a fetus being used for fetal tissue development. What is worse, that photo was shown without the woman's consent. It had no relation to Planned Parenthood. It was used without the mother's consent.

What I want to know from the majority: Is this the evidence that you are using to decide that you are going to deny funding for Planned Parenthood and all the well-women visits women use?

Madam Speaker, my colleagues ought to be ashamed of showing this, and my colleagues ought to be ashamed of putting this bill on the floor today. We are seeing shamelessness right here on the floor today.

My colleagues on the other side are trying to do everything they can to insert themselves between American women and their right to make their own healthcare decisions. It is wrong, and I urge a ``no'' vote on this legislation.

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