PRO-WOMEN’S HEALTH MEMBERS OF CONGRESS STAND BY PLANNED PARENTHOOD AS HOUSE VOTES TO CUT OFF MILLIONS OF AMERICAN WOMEN FROM BASIC REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE
For Immediate Release: Oct. 21, 2015
Washington, DC --- Today, by a vote of 241-187-1-5 and 248-177-1-8, the House passed two bills, H.R. 3134, and H.R. 3504, respectively, that aim to block safe, legal abortion, and roll back millions of Americans’ access to essential reproductive health care.
Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT) also unsuccessfully offered the only proposed amendmenton HR 3134, which aimed to protect women’s access to vital care.
Eric Ferrero, Vice President of Communications for Planned Parenthood Action Fund, released the following statement:
"It's no wonder that solid majorities of the public disapprove of the job Congress is doing and overwhelmingly support Planned Parenthood. These bills are a callous attempt to insert politics into women's health, and we're grateful that the Senate and the president will stop them from becoming law. Millions of Americans rely on Planned Parenthood for birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings, and other critical preventive care, and nothing that politicians in Congress did today will change the fact that our doors remain open to everyone, in every part of this country, who needs high-quality, compassionate reproductive health care."
Read more about the two bills here:http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/09/18/house-bills-hit-planned-parenthood-some-abortion-doctors
“This attack on a venerable and respected provider of high-quality health care would have a devastating impact on women, especially women in rural communities, low-income women and women of color and would deny women access to preventive care, life-saving cancer screenings and family planning services. Approximately one woman in five has relied on Planned Parenthood for health care at some point in her lifetime.” - Representative Judy Chu, (D-CA)
“When the Republicans took control of the house in 2011, the first thing they did was nearly shut down the government over funding for Planned Parenthood. Four years later Republicans are once again seriously, seriously considering shutting down the government over the exact same thing. This time they have manufactured a witch-hunt based on heavily edited videos that were clearly intended to mislead the public and the Congress. They have wasted time and resources on futile investigations that have proved absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing on behalf of Planned Parenthood” - Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
“To make it all even more outrageous, this bill is based on a series of unsupported allegations and ignores the fact that there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood. In fact, five states have now conducted their own investigations into the charges against Planned Parenthood and have found that no laws have been broken. Instead, the backers of this bill rely on misleading, badly doctored videos released by an extreme anti-choice group as the basis for a slew of legislation to decrease access to care for women in this country who can least afford it. Millions of women rely on Planned Parenthood for their basic health care.” - Rep. Carolyn Maloney, (D-NY)
“Simply defunding Planned parenthood would leave millions of American women without key preventative services, including birth control, family planning, life-saving cancer screenings, testing and treatment of infections, well-women exams and advice on family planning.” - Rep.Kathy Castor, (D-FL)
“80% of the patients that Planned Parenthood serves have incomes at or below 150% of the poverty line. Those patients are sitting inside waiting rooms at Planned Parenthood centers across the country at this very moment facing some of the most emotional decisions and challenging tests of their entire lives. The practitioners and nurse who will treat them won't just attend to their immediate medical needs, they'll make sure that patient knows that he or she is not alone. If we pass this bill, we are turning our backs on those patients. We are telling low-income families in every corner of this country that we count their health and happiness less.” - Rep.Joe Kennedy (D-MA)
“Planned Parenthood provides exactly the types of interventions that prevent unintended pregnancies and the needs for abortion in the first place, like birth control options, and medically accurate sexual health education. But if this bill becomes law, these important services Planned Parenthood brings to our communities will disappear and the health of our communities will pay the price.” - Rep. Lois Capps, (D-CA)
“We have seen it countless times before: Congress telling this country that the judgment of politicians is superior to that of American women. What does surprise me, however, is that now Republicans are willing to shut down our government and put our economy at risk in order to deny women access to the health care provider of their choice.” - Rep.Doris Matsui (D-CA)
“Let’s be clear: This is yet another attempt by anti-choice bully politicians to restrict a woman's right to choose and doctors' ability to provide sound, compassionate, and safe care for women. It is an aggressive, bullish scare tactic that puts the relationship of a woman and her physician in jeopardy and forces politicians in the middle of decisions that they have no business being involved in. I agree with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other physician groups in opposing this legislation, and I stand with the women across this great country that have continued to fight for decades to defend their legal right to choose.” - Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA)
“These bills are part of that same attack on the progress that we made in America. They have not gone through the proper process, and they are attempts to change America in a way that would affect American women adversely. This bill has a definition of abortion that's new - it shouldn’t be done. I’d oppose both bills and the rules and thank the speaker for her time.” - Rep. Steve Cohen, (D-TN)
“I want to introduce you, members on the other side of the aisle, to Colleen from albany, New York. 27 years old. I want you to look into her eyes and I want you to tell me that you'd rather see her dead. Because Collen went to Planned Parenthood because she was in between jobs and sought health care. she received a breast cancer exam at Planned Parenthood. She had stage two breast cancer and she is alive today because it was identified at a Planned Parenthood clinic and they operated and she is healthy. She is not the only one. there are 86,000 men and women who seek services at Planned Parenthood every year for breast cancer or for Pap smears, for cervical cancer, who are identified as having a positive test result. As a result they get care. 86,000. so what you're say is, it's ok for 86,000 to die because that's how they were accessing their health care.” - Rep. Jackie Speier, (D-CA)
“This legislation threatens those services and the health of patients, including 7,000 women in my district annually who rely on Planned Parenthood for health care. As a woman, mother and breast cancer survivor, I refuse to take that threat lying down. Republicans' own investigations turned up nothing. Willing to risk women's lives yet some of their members are just to score political points.Enough is enough. I urge all members who truly value women's health to vote against this outrageous witch hunt,” - Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
“They (Republicans) know that there is no evidence that Planned Parenthood has violated any federal laws. They know that 90% of Planned Parenthood services go to essential cancer screenings, family planning counseling, pregnancy tests, contraceptive care, and other things. This bill will deny women those services and when this bill fails in the Senate, our Republican colleagues are apparently prepared to shut down the government in order to shut down those women's health service.” - Rep. Chris Van Hollen, (D-MD)
“I rise today in strong opposition to HR 3134, the ‘Defund Planned Parenthood Act’. There is nothing thoughtful about this legislation. This is a shameful and shocking sham. this has always been about Republicans wanting to restrict the right of women to make their own health decisions.” - Rep. Donald Payne Jr., (D-NJ)
“This bill is shameful, it's disrespectful, it's wrong. Politicians shouldn't be interfering any way in a woman's personal health care decision. It's past time Republicans stop their war on women and stop these ideological attacks and stop using women's health care to divert attention from a looming government shutdown” -Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
“It's shameful that the House is allowing the reckless actions of a few extremists to jeopardize the critical safety net provided by Planned Parenthood. We can’t let that happen.” - Rep. Susan DelBene, (D-WA)
“This bill is dumb, it's foolish and it's mean-spirited, with only one purpose, and that is to punish one of our country's premier health organizations because it provides women access to an array of services that we need to lead healthy lives. The bill is based upon lies and exaggerations. Now, if you want to have a truthful debate, then let's talk about the 400,000 Pap smears, the 500,000 breast exams, the 4 1/2 million STD and H.I.V. tests that Planned Parenthood does each year. Now, that's saving lives and that's the truth.” - Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL)
“I represent the largest affiliate of Planned Parenthood in the United States-and guess what? 22% of the patients in that are men. So you're going to deny access not only to women, but to men. You say ‘oh,’ we'll shift the money somewhere else. There is nowhere else. These are the only clinics around in many of the communities.” - Rep.Sam Farr, (D-CA)
“Who is really behind the attempts to defund Planned Parenthood? Radical anti-abortion groups who want to shut down Planned Parenthood and deny women access to safe and legal abortion.These are groups who want to deny women the right to make a private, personal medical decision. And in the process, they want to take away the access to birth control, family planning services and even basic health care. And they have orchestrated a false, misleading smear campaign to try to accomplish their goal, a campaign we've heard a lot about today on the floor of the House of Representatives.” -Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
“These attacks do not reflect my experience and knowledge of the amazing dedicated civic-minded men and women, pillars of our community, who built, supported and led Planned Parenthood in my community...people who know their community's Planned Parenthood leadership understand that this heated rhetoric, outrageous claims and attack against service to low income women is not just false, it's wrong.” - Rep. Earl Blumenauer, (D-OR)
“We all know a woman who has been diagnosed with cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer. It may be your mother, your neighbor, your wife who sought preventive care or screening from a doctor of her choice. And we know a woman who received quality medical care at Planned Parenthood. In fact, one in five American women have sought medical care from Planned Parenthood. It may be your daughter, it may be your boss, it may be your colleague. My amendment will ensure that any qualified organization that provides women health services can receive funding. It's simple and it's fair. We need more access to quality health care, not less. We need to stop trying to restrict access to life-saving cancer screenings, birth control and well-woman exams. We need to stop fighting 40-year-old battles on women's rights. Defunding Planned Parenthood would have a devastating impact on women, especially low-income women, women in rural communities and women of color,” - Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-CT)