[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 16, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S275-S276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. ERNST (for herself, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Risch, 
        Mr. Cotton, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Crapo, Mrs. 
        Blackburn, Mr. Sasse, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Rubio, Mrs. Fischer, 
        Mr. Moran, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Thune, Mr. Enzi, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. 
        Hawley, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Romney, Mr. Graham, Mr. Hoeven, Mr. 
        Roberts, Mr. Daines, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Paul, Mr. 
        Boozman, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Barrasso, and Mr. Scott of South 
        Carolina):
  S. 141. A bill to prohibit Federal funding of Planned Parenthood 
Federation of America; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
and Pensions.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Ms. ERNST. Thank you very much to my colleagues, the Senator from 
Nebraska, the Senator from Mississippi, as well as our other colleague, 
the Senator from Missouri. Thank you for joining us on the floor today 
to express our support for those who march for life. Thank you so much.
  As my colleagues can attest, the invaluable message being shared by 
the pro-life community this week has implications far beyond that of 
simply the March for Life. As I travel across my home State of Iowa, I 
see this life-affirming message in our pregnancy resource centers, 
maternity homes, and adoption agencies. These comprehensive on-the-
ground services provide women and families with service options that 
are changing and saving lives every single day.
  These life-affirming services are the foundation of the pro-life 
movement across our Nation, and I sincerely thank those centers and 
agencies for their critical work to fight for vulnerable lives 
throughout the year.
  I see the same message in the remarkable stories of individual 
families, such as the Pickering family from Newton, IA. I have had the 
opportunity to share the phenomenal story of Micah Pickering on the 
Senate floor before. As you may recall, Micah was born at just 20 weeks 
postfertilization. He was only about the size of a bag of M&M's--the 
size of the palm of my hand. That was Micah. Yet Micah was also a 
perfect, fully-formed baby boy, with 10 fingers and 10 toes. In fact, 
no one makes his case more eloquently than Micah himself.
  When I first met Micah, I had a picture of him displayed in my office 
from the day that he was born--again, the size of the palm of my hand. 
Micah immediately ran up to that picture. He pointed at it, and he 
said: ``Baby.''
  Micah recognized right away that even at just 20 weeks 
postfertilization, the humanity of the child was undeniable.
  Micah's parents and the doctors and nurses at the University of Iowa 
Hospitals & Clinics recognized this humanity, as well, and were 
dedicated to his survival. Today Micah is a happy, healthy, and 
energetic 6-year-old boy.
  Stories like Micah's are extraordinary reminders that the life-
affirming services, for which the pro-life community marches, have real 
and significant impacts on the lives of families across America.
  Since coming to Congress, I have also tried to do my part to ensure 
that this message from those in my home State of Iowa and from other 
communities all across the Nation is taken back and turned into action 
in Washington. For me, that has meant supporting crucial pro-life 
initiatives, such as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, 
which would prevent abortions after 20 weeks of development--the very 
same age at which my dear Micah was born.
  Another critical piece of legislation, the Born-Alive Abortion 
Survivors Protection Act, would create concrete enforcement provisions 
to hold abortionists accountable if they do not provide the same degree 
of care to a baby who survives an abortion as they would any child born 
naturally premature at that same age.
  Fighting for commonsense legislation that protects innocent life has 
been a priority of mine in the Senate. But Congress must also do more 
to ensure that taxpayers are not forced to subsidize abortion or the 
abortion industry giants, such as Planned Parenthood.
  During the 115th Congress, I led the fight in the Senate to pass 
critical legislation, which was signed into law in 2017, that ensures 
States are not forced to provide entities like Planned Parenthood, the 
Nation's single largest provider of abortions, with Federal title X 
dollars.
  I am grateful to have worked with former Congresswoman Diane Black, 
my Senate colleagues, and President Trump to make sure States are not 
forced to award providers like Planned Parenthood with taxpayer dollars 
like title X family planning grants.
  As I have stated time and again, taxpayers should not be forced to 
foot the bill for roughly one-half billion dollars annually for an 
organization like Planned Parenthood, which exhibits such disrespect 
for human life. With that in mind, today I reintroduced legislation 
that would defund Planned Parenthood while still protecting vital 
funding for women's healthcare services. Contrary to what they claim, 
Planned Parenthood is not the Nation's preeminent provider of women's 
healthcare. In fact, Planned Parenthood facilities do not even perform 
in-house mammograms; something so simple is not performed by Planned 
Parenthood.
  On the other hand, just as my colleague the senior Senator from 
Nebraska stated, community health centers continue to greatly outnumber 
Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide and provide more comprehensive 
preventive and primary health services, including cervical and breast 
cancer screenings, diagnostic laboratory and radiology services, well 
childcare, prenatal and postnatal care, immunizations, and so much 
more. Access to comprehensive health services is absolutely critical to 
women and families across this Nation, and federally qualified health 
centers offer such services, regardless of a person's ability to pay.
  A recent GAO study that I requested, along with many of my colleagues 
in both the House and the Senate, showed that over a 3-year period, 
federally qualified health centers served 25 million individuals 
compared to only 2.4 million individuals that Planned Parenthood 
served. That is more than 10 times more people served by those 
healthcare centers.
  Furthermore, a recent Marist poll shows that 54 percent of Americans 
do not support taxpayer dollars going toward abortions. While there are 
Federal regulations that prevent Federal dollars from directly covering 
abortion, these laws are governed by a complicated patchwork of 
policies and funding riders that must be reapproved during the 
appropriations process every single year.
  Since 1976, the Hyde amendment has been attached to appropriations 
bills in order to block Federal funds from paying for abortions. 
However, this policy, which once drew widespread bipartisan support, 
has recently been under attack. For the first time ever, the Affordable 
Care Act authorized and appropriated funds that bypassed the Hyde 
amendment funding restrictions. In 2016, the Democratic Party added the 
repeal of the Hyde amendment protections to its Presidential platform.
  The Hyde amendment is a longstanding and critical provision that 
protects Federal dollars and ensures that taxpayers are not footing the 
bill for abortion procedures. That is why I support the No Taxpayer 
Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 
2019, which was recently reintroduced in the Senate. This legislation 
would permanently codify the Hyde amendment, ensuring that funding 
restrictions remain in place and are applied to all Federal programs. 
Furthermore, this bill takes important steps to eliminate certain tax 
benefits related to abortions and improve disclosure requirements 
related to insurance coverage of abortion.
  Preventing our taxpayer dollars from paying for abortion procedures--
a position that a majority of Americans agree with--should not be a 
complicated process vulnerable to partisan

[[Page S276]]

attack. Congress must take steps to ensure that permanent protections 
apply governmentwide.
  As such, I urge the Senate to consider the No Taxpayer Funding for 
Abortion and Abortion Insurance Disclosure Act on the floor in order to 
protect not only our taxpayer dollars but the innocent lives of our 
most vulnerable.
  I appreciate all of the marchers who will be coming to Washington, 
DC, in the following days and spending their time in a most worthy 
effort, which is our annual March for Life. God bless them all. Of 
course, God bless my Iowans for that journey.
  Thank you very much.
                                 ______