Executive Calendar
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, it gives me no pleasure to say this, but this administration is actively doing terrible things for women and their families. They have rolled back protections for workers. They have made it easier for companies to pollute the air and the water. They have cut investments in public education. They have literally taken children away from their parents and made zero effort to reunite them. They are working as hard as possible to prevent women from having access to the healthcare they need. These are not rhetorical statements. They are policies that hurt people. They are hurting moms.
The Centers for Disease Control came out with a report just this week showing that hundreds of women die every year from pregnancy-related complications and that many of these deaths are preventable. The report finds that one of the key ways to prevent these deaths is access to proper medical care. Yet this administration has made taking away people's access to healthcare a top priority. They have put legislation in to end the Affordable Care Act. They filed lawsuits to take away protections for people with preexisting conditions. They have issued regulations that allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide care to someone based on their personal beliefs and keep healthcare providers from giving their patients full and accurate information. As we all know, they have gone after Planned Parenthood--one of the leading sources of healthcare for women--with everything they have.
I remember when I first became a Member of this body, I visited a clinic in Honolulu. I remember meeting with the staff, who told me that clinic was the only source of healthcare for most of their patients. This was the one place women could go for family planning services, counseling, and breast cancer screenings.
Planned Parenthood's entire reason for being is to help families. In a single year, they cared for 2.4 million people and provided almost 10 million individual healthcare services, including 300,000 breast cancer screenings and over 200,000 well-woman exams--all in a single year. Yet a highlight of this administration's policy on women is to attack women's health and specifically Planned Parenthood.
But we know it is not just healthcare. As I said, it is workplace safety and fairness. It is investment in public education. It is clean air and clean water. These are things that all of us care about but moms in particular.
Whatever your political persuasion, everyone has a mom. Lots of people are moms or are married to a mom. This administration is inarguably bad for moms and bad for motherhood. Moms in this country deserve better.
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