[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 41 (Thursday, March 7, 2019)]
[Senate]
[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.