March 7, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 41 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
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Title X (Executive Session); Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 41
(Senate - March 07, 2019)
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[Pages S1721-S1722] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Title X Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, since day one of the Trump administration, the Republicans have done everything they can to cater to an extreme rightwing base by undermining women's access to the healthcare they need and the healthcare providers they trust. They have moved to roll back requirements that insurance companies include birth control as an essential health benefit, which would mean millions of women would go back to paying extra for birth control on top of their coverage. They have held votes on extreme abortion bans that would get in between a woman and her doctor. They have jammed the courts, even the Supreme Court, with partisans who have made clear they share [[Page S1722]] the extreme and frightening goal of overturning Roe v. Wade and of taking away a woman's constitutional right to safe, legal abortion in the United States of America. Most recently, the Trump administration has put forward a deeply harmful rule that would jeopardize access to affordable reproductive healthcare for the millions of men and women who depend on title X, our Nation's family planning program, which historically has had bipartisan support. If this rule goes into effect, providers at health centers that receive title X funding will be blocked--gagged--from even telling patients about where and how to get a safe, legal abortion as part of a discussion of reproductive healthcare options. The rule would also impose new, medically unnecessary requirements that would make it impossible for Planned Parenthood centers, which serve 41 percent of the title X patients, to continue to participate. Four million people--disproportionately young people, low-income women, and women of color--go to title X-funded centers, including to Planned Parenthood centers, for birth control, for lifesaving cancer screenings, for STD tests, and more each year, and this rule puts the care they depend on in jeopardy. The Republicans here in the Capitol may have no idea what it would mean for patients to lose access to the providers they trust and the affordable care they need, but that is not because those patients and their doctors and their communities have not been speaking up--they have been. People across the country--women and men, doctors, city and county health officials, religious groups, advocates--told this administration as it was developing this rule that they did not want to see providers at title X barred from giving them medically sound information or have patients be denied access to providers they trust at Planned Parenthood because the Republicans think they know better. The final rule the Trump administration released shows it ignored those who personally know how much it matters to have unbiased, quality care at title X centers, including at Planned Parenthood. The Republicans might have ignored those voices, but we Democrats are not going to. So I am releasing a memo today that will highlight statements that were submitted in strong opposition to this rule by people from across the country. I want to make absolutely sure that the Republicans have every opportunity to hear what patients and providers have to say. I want to give a few examples. One patient called her visit to a Planned Parenthood to get a Pap smear a ``lifesaver.'' Another wrote: ``Young people like me rely on Title X for access to family planning services at the provider of our choice.'' A mother and sister from Nevada told the Trump administration: I too have sisters and four daughters. We are capable, adept, and able to make decisions for ourselves. We want to make informed decisions. . . . Withholding information is misinformation and manipulation. County health officials and healthcare providers repeatedly urged the administration that this rule would ``interfere in the doctor-patient relationship'' and was ``an infringement on the ethical principles that medical providers adhere to'' with potentially ``irreversible'' impacts in struggling communities. Since it, apparently, needs to be said on the Senate floor, I would like to remind my colleagues that what these patients, healthcare providers, and community leaders are saying about the importance of a woman's ability to make her own healthcare decisions is not controversial. People in this country overwhelmingly agree that women should be able to get birth control. They agree that no matter how much money you make or where you live, you should be able to get a cancer screening that could save your life and, yes, that women should be able to exercise their constitutional right to safe, legal abortion. I challenge the Republicans today to read the memo I am releasing. Listen to the women and men whom this rule hurts and from the people who are working to help them get the care they need. Then join the Democrats in standing up against this dangerous, unethical step backward because, right now, it is pretty clear, once again, that the Republicans want to make women's health a political battlefield instead of a serious priority. Let me be clear. The Democrats are going to keep standing up for a woman's right to the care that is right for her. We are going to continue to stand up for women's access to affordable birth control, for women's constitutionally protected rights, and against those who want to put politicians in the doctor's office, where they do not ever belong. If that is a fight the Republicans want to have, we are ready and so are people across the country, like the brave ones who spoke up against this very harmful rule. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll. Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Romney). Without objection, it is so ordered.
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