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Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. 4329. Further, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, you know, it is always so interesting to hear the objections of my colleagues when it comes to something that is considered a pro-life measure. And pushing this bill forward and listening to my colleague--it just shows me that once again, they are not standing with that right to life.
We are celebrating 250 years of our great Nation. What do we have? That right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Today marks 4 years since the Supreme Court corrected a blatant act of judicial activism that legitimized the killing of more than 63 million unborn children.
My colleagues across the aisle like to say: Oh, but abortion is compassionate.
Think about the 63 million unborn babies--63 million.
So, yes, 4 years ago, the Supreme Court corrected this act of judicial activism. With the Court's Dobbs decision, the authority finally returned to the States and ``we the people,'' where it belongs.
This marked a watershed moment in the fight for life, but there is still so much more work to do to make certain that right is recognized, that right to life--the right to life, to liberty, to the pursuit of happiness.
We know that one thing that needs to be done is ending all Federal funding of abortion services. That is important. This isn't about closing clinics; this is about making certain that taxpayer money does not go to fund those services.
For decades, Federal law has prohibited the use of Federal funds for abortions, but big abortion providers like Planned Parenthood exploit every loophole possible to get around this restriction. It is a long list. They are addicted to your money to provide abortion services.
One of those loopholes is the title X Family Planning Program. This program is intended to assist low-income women with family planning services. Section 1008 of the Public Health Service Act explicitly states that title X funds ``shall not be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.'' That is the law.
This isn't about restricting healthcare; it is about--we need to support life, and we need to abide by the law.
Yet, under the law, title X clinics are allowed to refer patients for abortions and share facilities with abortion providers. As a result, Planned Parenthood clinics that receive Federal family planning funds can share the same facility, staff, and waiting room as an abortion clinic. There is no division there. They are sharing that space. They are sharing staff. They are sharing the waiting room. You go in the same door, and they are thereby using taxpayer dollars.
Now, taxpayers, including millions across the country who hold deeply held beliefs opposing abortion, should not have to spend a penny in supporting abortion providers. This is their hard-earned money. We have a law. The law should be abided by. That is why I am asking that we move forward with this bill. We have heard my colleague's objection. I disagree with her. We should abide by the rule of law, and we should support the right to life. I think everyone should stand up and close this loophole once and for all.
We just talked about the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would ensure that taxpayer funds aren't used or flow--these family planning funds--to abortion providers.
What Senator Baldwin has talked about in this bill is the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, and what it would do is make obtaining abortions easier. It would make it easier because it would allow them to be paid for by tax dollars. Let's let this sink in for a minute. This bill would authorize hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to fund, as my colleague said, the travel, the lodging, the meals, the childcare, and all of the other expenses that are associated with obtaining an abortion. Four years after Dobbs rightfully returned this issue to the American people and their elected representatives, this very legislation would undermine that decision by using Federal dollars to facilitate and fund abortions across State lines.
Now, we all want healthy moms and healthy babies--that is a goal that everyone shares--but instead of supporting pregnant women by making grants available to pregnancy resource centers, our colleagues across the aisle would rather spend that $350 million in taxpayer funding each year to eliminate what makes obtaining an abortion inconvenient. That is absolutely atrocious. Democrats claim to be the party of choice, but bankrolling the entire abortion process only increases the pressure on women to choose abortion by making it the more financially feasible option. There is no choice in that. A 2004 study found 64 percent of women felt pressured by others to have an abortion.
If Congress truly wants to respect the conscience rights of millions of Americans and actually protect women, children, and families, it should reject this legislation and pass the Title X Abortion Provider Protection Act.
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