[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 30, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H2046-H2047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1050
      THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DEBATE OVER DEFUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Pence) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, abortion on demand is an American tragedy, 
but public funding for abortion and abortion providers is an American 
disgrace. Fortunately, we have never been closer to denying public 
funding to abortion providers in America than we are today.
  On February 18, 2011, with bipartisan support, the House of 
Representatives

[[Page H2047]]

passed H.R. 1, which included the Pence amendment ending taxpayer 
funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in 
America. Despite efforts to suggest otherwise, the Pence amendment does 
not reduce funding for cancer screening or eliminate one dime of 
funding for other important health services to women. If the Pence 
amendment becomes law, thousands of women's health centers, clinics and 
hospitals would still provide assistance to low-income families and 
women. The Pence amendment would simply deny all Federal funding to 
Planned Parenthood of America.
  Over the past several weeks, Planned Parenthood has used its vast 
resources to launch slick Madison Avenue television ads portraying the 
Nation's largest abortion provider as an altruistic organization that 
provides health care services to the poor with only an incidental 
interest in the abortion industry. The truth is far afield from the 
image. The truth is that a major source of Planned Parenthood's clinic 
income comes from the abortion business.
  Despite attempts by advocates for the abortion industry and 
ideologues on the left to portray efforts to defund Planned Parenthood 
as some kind of a ``war on women,'' the issue here is big business, and 
that business is abortion. This legislative battle over the Pence 
amendment is about Big Abortion versus American taxpayers and American 
women specifically.
  As Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director, recently said, 
``Planned Parenthood's mission, on paper, is to give quality and 
affordable health care and to protect women's rights. But in reality,'' 
she said, ``their mission is to increase their abortion numbers and in 
turn increase their revenue.''
  There is no doubt that Planned Parenthood's focus is on making Big 
Abortion even bigger. In 2009, the group made only 977 adoption 
referrals and cared for 7,021 prenatal clients, but performed an 
unprecedented 332,278 abortions. In fact, in 2009, a pregnant woman 
entering a Planned Parenthood clinic was 42 times more likely to have 
an abortion than to receive either prenatal care or to be referred to 
an adoption service.
  According to their most recent annual report, the organization raked 
in $1.1 billion in total revenue. Of that amount, $363.2 million came 
from taxpayers in the form of government grants and contracts. This is 
about big business, and that business is abortion.
  And for all the talk about how poor women would be harmed if 
taxpayers stopped subsidizing Big Abortion, it is telling to see how 
they have been spending their money. According to a June 2008 story in 
The Wall Street Journal, Planned Parenthood was flush with cash and 
using its profits to rebrand itself to appeal to more affluent American 
women. Their rebranding effort was designed to build their business by 
increasingly targeting wealthy consumers to complement their existing 
targeting of poor and minority women.
  While taxpayers underwrite their operations, Planned Parenthood is 
building large luxury health centers in shopping centers and malls 
designed by marketing experts with touches like hardwood floors, muted 
lighting, large waiting rooms and the like.
  And Big Abortion routinely puts profits over women's health and 
safety. When women testify on behalf of improved safety standards at 
abortion clinics, Planned Parenthood opposes it and fights them every 
step of the way. And despite the fact that 88 percent of Americans 
favor informed consent laws that provide information about the risks 
and alternatives to abortions for women, Planned Parenthood opposes 
these efforts and works to keep women in the dark in jurisdictions 
across the country.
  The reality is abortion on demand is an American tragedy, but public 
funding of abortion providers is an American disgrace. The time has 
come to deny any and all funding to Planned Parenthood of America and 
this week, as House Republicans reaffirm our commitment to H.R. 1, to 
reaffirm our commitment to make a down payment on fiscal responsibility 
and reform. Let us also seize this moment to reaffirm our commitment to 
defend the broad mainstream values of the American people in the way we 
spend the people's money.
  I urge continued support by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle 
of the Pence amendment denying public funding to Planned Parenthood of 
America.

                          ____________________