[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 139 (Friday, September 25, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            EXPRESSING OPPOSITION TO H.R. 3504 AND H.R. 3134

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                            HON. ADAM SMITH

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 25, 2015

  Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I want to register my deep 
concerns with a pair of bills, H.R. 3504 and H.R. 3134, that were 
considered by the House last week. Although I was unable to be present 
to vote against these measures due to a medical appointment related to 
my recovery from two recent hip surgeries, I remain steadfastly opposed 
to both bills.
  I am a strong supporter of increasing access to family planning and 
women's healthcare services. H.R. 3134, passed in the House last week 
by a vote of 241-187, prohibits the federal government from funding 
Planned Parenthood health centers for one year. This legislation is 
nothing more than a punitive and intrusive attack on the essential and 
wide-ranging healthcare services that Planned Parenthood provides. If 
this bill was signed into law, it would cut off essential health 
services for millions of women, men, and families across the United 
States.
  Planned Parenthood serves a total of 2.7 million patients per year. 
It is a central provider of equitable access to healthcare for both men 
and women of underserved communities across the United States. One in 
five American women will use Planned Parenthood services at some time 
during her life. In Washington State, more than 103,000 women and men--
nearly 65 percent of whom are at or below the poverty line--use Planned 
Parenthood for their family planning and basic health needs. If this 
legislation succeeds, millions of Americans will be stripped of this 
access.
  Anti-choice rhetoric and controversy has surrounded federal funding 
for Planned Parenthood because about three percent of the services they 
provide include abortion services. Current law already denies Medicaid 
coverage for these services by almost completely barring federal 
funding, except in very limited circumstances. Ninety percent of the 
services Planned Parenthood provides are preventative health services, 
including lifesaving cancer screenings, blood pressure checks, birth 
control, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and 
educational efforts to avoid unwanted pregnancies and prevent 
abortions. Failing to fund Planned Parenthood will greatly diminish 
access to these services for low income women, men, and families in 
need of affordable healthcare and preventative screenings.
  H.R. 3504 was also passed in the House last week. This bill 
legislation attempts to advance the anti-choice, anti-health agenda by 
interfering with important and difficult medical judgments that should 
be left up to health professionals. If enacted into law, this bill 
would apply scare tactics like onerous criminal penalties on doctors 
and clinicians. These penalties are punitive and will intimidate women 
away from seeking safe, legal, standardized, evidence-based care. This 
legislation is not a restatement of current ``born-alive'' law which 
contained language assuring no interference in a women's right to 
terminate a pregnancy. Instead, this bill takes that assurance away 
from women. This effort signifies the latest attempt by extreme 
Republicans to limit women's access to safe, legal abortions. I 
strongly oppose this legislation that politicizes women's health and 
interferes in the doctor-patient relationship
  Mr. Speaker, I stand with women across the United States to defend 
their access to comprehensive reproductive health options, and commend 
Planned Parenthood for leading in this effort.

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