Congressional Record, Volume 168 Issue 121 (Thursday, July 21, 2022)

[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 121 (Thursday, July 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3590-S3593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

LEGISLATIVE SESSION

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will now resume legislative
session.
The senior Senator from Connecticut.

Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4550

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am honored to appear with a group of
my colleagues on behalf of the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act.
We are here to talk about this essential measure in the post-Roe
world. That is a phrase I never thought I would ever utter anywhere,
not to mention on the floor of the U.S. Senate. But we are living in
the post-Roe world where reproductive rights are under assault as never
before and critical reproductive healthcare services are more necessary
and also are more at risk than ever before. That is why a consistent,
strong source of funding for title X Family Planning Programs are
absolutely critical and urgent. That is the purpose of the Expanding
Access to Family Planning Act.
What it means for the State of Connecticut is, in the past, $2.5
million in title X funding, allowing patients, mostly women--45,000 of
them--critical access to comprehensive family planning and preventive
healthcare services. What we are talking about here is not only family
planning but also testing and treatment for sexually transmitted
diseases, lifesaving cancer screening, and other essential health
services. And they are all now at risk.
What they need is the strong and consistent source of funding that
this measure would provide, doubling--literally, almost doubling the
number of dollars but also guaranteeing over a 10-year period that
clinics will receive this funding.
In the State of Connecticut, most of this funding in the past has
gone to Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. The Cornell Scott-
Hill Health Center has received some. They have done absolutely
extraordinary work in delivering health services, particularly to women
who are uninsured, women who are of lower incomes, and women who are
younger--under 30. And that is the primary patient pool that needs
these services.
Let me be very blunt. If my Republican colleagues truly care about
supporting families, they can show it by supporting this measure and
funding title X. In the past, since its inception 50 years ago, it has
been bipartisan because people agree that families ought to be a
priority, that decisions about when and whether to have children are
the most important that we make, that caring for families and
particularly prenatal care, screening for sexually transmitted
diseases, cancer screening--these health services are vital to all of
us, whether we are the patient or not, and that they stay funded in the
long run. Preventive healthcare is pound-wise, and it will save money.
We know that the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs strips women of a
vitally important freedom and puts it in the hands of government
bureaucrats: the decision about when and whether to have children. The
least we can do now is to fund the reproductive healthcare services
that will save lives and save futures.
Dobbs has put women at risk. It has put reproductive healthcare in
grave jeopardy. This measure is necessary to mitigate the effects of
Dobbs--more necessary now than ever before. We will never stop fighting
for a woman's right to choose when and whether to have children. We
will never stop fighting to protect a woman's right to access
healthcare that is vital to her own and her children's health.
In the face of mounting attacks on women's health, now is the time to
strengthen title X, and that is why we need this legislation. Passing
the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act will strengthen our entire
healthcare system.
It is simply critical for this $500 million--providing birth control,
cancer screening, other kinds of testing and treatment--to be passed.
And if my Republican colleagues are serious about supporting families,
they ought to be eager to join us. And I am proud to be supporting this
measure, and I am eager to see it signed into law.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Expanding
Access to Family Planning Act, which will help ensure millions of
Americans can continue receiving family planning services through the
title X program.
For more than 40 years, title X has helped ensure hundreds of
thousands of women--regardless of income, background, insurance status,
or hometown--have access to basic reproductive healthcare, including
wellness exams, cancer screenings, birth control, and testing and
treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.
While this program, which was created with bipartisan support, has
been around for decades, we have seen what happens when MAGA
Republicans are in control. President Trump slashed funding for title X
and imposed a dangerous domestic gag rule that banned doctors from
telling people how they could access abortion services. The gag rule
wreaked havoc across the country. It forced providers to decide whether
they wanted to receive title X funding--knowing that healthcare
providers wouldn't be able to provide women with accurate and
comprehensive information--or say no to this critical family planning
funding that supports women across the country through clinics like
Planned Parenthood and other nonprofits.
In my home State of Hawaii, the entire network of title X clinics
said no to this dangerous rule and rejected the funding, forcing our
State to foot the bill. On the other hand, the State of Hawaii, the
clinics in Hawaii, because they rejected this funding, could provide
the full range of care for their clients, but ultimately the gag rule
resulted in a loss of services to thousands of women.
Across the country, Trump's rule slashed title X's patient capacity
in half, jeopardizing family planning and contraceptive care for 1.6
million patients nationwide. While President Biden reversed this rule,
we can't take anything for granted.
As the rightwing Supreme Court and MAGA Republicans work to eliminate
reproductive freedom, it is critical we protect and strengthen title X.
That is

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exactly what the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act will do. This
bill will nearly double funding for title X family planning services by
providing $500 million in mandatory funding for title X for each of the
next 10 years. It will also ban title X providers from discriminating
against patients and require pregnancy consulting services receiving
title X funds to provide patients with all of the information about all
their reproductive care options, including abortion.
Republicans have made clear they will do anything to get rid of our
reproductive freedoms, so we must pass this bill to make sure this
program isn't at the whim of those trying to strip us of our
healthcare. While Republicans continue to attack our fundamental
rights, Democrats are doing everything we can to protect them. That is
why, in addition to this important bill, earlier this week, I
introduced legislation to codify the right to contraception. All of
this is about who gets to make decisions about our bodies--women or a
bunch of rightwing politicians.
I believe--and the American people overwhelmingly agree--individuals,
not politicians, should be making these deeply personal decisions.
Our Right to Contraception Act and the Expanding Access to Family
Planning Act will help ensure they can.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from Hawaii
for making these very important remarks today with respect to expanding
access to family planning.
And, Senator Hirono, let me also, while you are on the floor, tell
you how much I appreciate your leadership on the My Body, My Data Act.
I am thrilled to be, I believe, one of your sponsors here in the
Senate. It is hugely consequential, because we have known from even the
draft Alito opinion that women were going to have their personal data
weaponized against them.
I know you have a busy schedule, but I just wanted the body to know
how extraordinarily important this is, because when we look at
technology and, particularly, what technology can do today, what your
legislation does--with our colleague from the House, Congresswoman
Jacobs--is it gives us a chance to get back to the fundamental issue of
privacy rights. We are going to start looking more at the contractual
relationships between women and various companies because a lot of
those privacy policies aren't worth the paper they are written on.
I just want you to know I am so honored to be your cosponsor on a
very related piece of legislation. Your leadership has made a big
difference.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, just very briefly.
Senator Wyden, I am really glad to be able to sponsor the My Bodies,
My Data bill with you, because, as we know, any time any of us presses
the button and uses our internet, somebody is collecting data, all of
this data. And can you imagine there are all of these clinics that
purportedly provide information relating to contraception and whatever
else relating to reproductive care--these entities are also collecting
all kinds of information. And they are not there to make sure that
women--mainly women but individuals who access their services--they do
not know that these are not institutions that will give them all of the
information they need; but, instead, they are collecting a lot of
information that can be weaponized.
Thank you very much. This is yet another whole area of concern in
this environment, in this climate, where individuals do not have
control over our own bodies.
Mr. WYDEN. I just say to my colleague, sometimes it is a little
difficult to figure out where a piece of legislation is going. That is
not the case with your bill. My Body, My Data sums it up.
Again, thank you so much for your leadership.

Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4550

Mr. President, I also want to briefly touch on the important
legislation that Senator Smith--my Pacific Northwest colleague--Senator
Murray, and Senator Warner have recently introduced. They have an
important proposal called the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act.
I am proud to cosponsor this legislation. This is another area where
Chair Murray and I work very closely together because a lot of these
issues can often involve Medicaid, for example. And I just so
appreciate my colleague bringing up her important bill with respect to
family planning.
The proposition behind this is pretty straightforward. The Supreme
Court overturned Roe against the will of the American people. States
are criminalizing abortion. Many women and girls are now being forced
to carry pregnancies to term and give birth. If they are going to stand
by this forced-birth agenda, then you better guarantee basic health for
women and families. That is really Senator Murray's challenge to Senate
Republicans. You can't be pro-life and pro-family if you are against
healthcare that saves lives and protects families.
The Murray legislation, with Senator Smith and Senator Warren--I am
pleased to be for it today--is centered on a significant increase in
what is known as title X funding, which goes to basic essential
services like HIV tests, contraception, treatment for infections, and
pregnancy counseling.
And one of those services is really so vitally important. I just want
to mention it, and that is cancer screenings. Cancer screenings are a
particularly important issue now that the Supreme Court has overturned
Roe. Over the last few weeks there have been a wave of these horrendous
stories, as Senator Murray knows better than anyone, about the chaos
this radical Supreme Court ruling has unleashed on women's healthcare--
drawn-out miscarriages, potentially fatal complications left untreated,
physicians unsure of what treatments they are legally allowed to
perform.
And we know one of the absolute nightmares for women living in
forced-birth States is getting pregnant and having cancer at exactly
the same time. And the question is: In a world where a miscarriage
could lead to criminal charges, how do you treat a pregnant woman with
cancer?
So we ought to think about that. And could getting chemo be a crime
in a forced-birth State, Senator Murray? In forced-birth States, how
many Americans are going to die because they waited too long to begin
treatment for breast cancer or cervical cancer or because they didn't
maybe get treated at all?
It is appalling that Americans are facing this kind of awful, I
think, unthinkable situation, all because six Republicans on the
Supreme Court threw 50 years of settled law on abortion rights into the
dustbin.
In the parlance of the Senate, Senator Murray, I yield to you. I
think your legislation is extraordinarily important.
Uh-oh. I have to reverse some parlance of the Senate and yield to
Senator Klobuchar, who also has been a champion of this issue. And I
just want the Senate to know, because we are in the Pacific Northwest,
we talk about these issues. People ought to make no mistake about it--
Senator Murray has put years and years into the cause of women's
health. And I really enjoy being junior partner in the whole effort and
look forward to her leadership.
And I yield to Senator Klobuchar.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, thank you so much. I join my
colleagues. Thank you, Senator Wyden, for your on-point remarks and, of
course, Senator Murray, for her incredible leadership, not only of the
committee but on taking this issue on and making clear to the State of
Washington, yes, but also to the country that this should be a woman's
decision, a woman and her doctor, family's decision, and not a decision
made by politicians.
And part of this is making sure there is access to family planning.
Since this decision has come out, I could not believe the number of
women that have come up to me at home or in airports, flight
attendants, saying things like: Is this really happening? You mean, I
am going to have to go to another State just to get reproductive
healthcare?
So how about contraception? There are people talking about
contraception. People all over the country have realized how extreme
this decision is. And one of the people who has been leading

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this fight--and, in fact, has been leading this proposal on expanding
access to family planning is my colleague Tina Smith. And she is here
in spirit today. She has a mild case of COVID. I know she is watching
right now because she has been fighting for the rights of women to make
their own decisions about their healthcare her entire life. She is the
only Senator in the history of the U.S. Senate that actually worked at
Planned Parenthood and has a firm understanding and has shown so much
leadership in this area. So we thank her. I am speaking for my
constituents, of course, to thank Tina Smith for her work and her
leadership.
As I noted, 26 days ago, the Supreme Court issued this rule shredding
nearly five decades of precedent protecting a woman's right to make her
own healthcare decisions. Now women are at the mercy of a patchwork of
State laws governing their ability to access reproductive care, leaving
them with fewer rights than their moms and their grandmas.
Last week, Senator Murray and I joined several of our Democratic
colleagues, including Senator Cortez Masto, who led this bill to
preserve a woman's right to travel to other States to access
reproductive care. Republicans blocked us. So we are back today because
if the Supreme Court won't protect a woman's right to make her own
healthcare decisions, if Congress can agree to put the protections of
Roe v. Wade into law, then everyone in this Chamber has to decide
whether they will protect women's healthcare or not. And that includes
making sure women have a right to abortion services, but it includes
having reliable access to family planning services.

Let's start by passing the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act to
protect and expand funding for title X clinics, which support maternal
health, cancer screening, contraception, and other essential
healthcare.
In 2020 alone--get this number--1.5 million Americans received
services through title X. But currently, Federal funding is not enough
to serve the number of people who need care. And in the wake of the
Supreme Court's ruling attacking the freedom and the autonomy of women,
it is likely that there will be even more demand in the years ahead.
That is why Expanding Access to Family Planning Act gives title X the
funding needed to serve women and families for the next 10 years.
This legislation is far from radical. The title X program was
actually created under a Republican administration. And the original
bill passed with broad bipartisan support. This is about making sure
women have a way to take care of themselves, especially when they are
pregnant.
Right now, I am thinking about all the women in this country facing
an unacceptably uncertain future. We should all be able to agree that,
at the very least, we should make sure that they have access to the
basic health services that title X provides--a provision that passed
during a Republican administration, created under a Republican
administration, that understood that women should be able to access to
healthcare.
There is a better path forward: We pass this bill, fund family
planning, and save women's lives. I call on my colleagues to join me in
supporting this necessary and completely pragmatic and sensible
legislation for the women of this country.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues Senator
Klobuchar, Senator Wyden, Senator Hirono, and so many others who have
been out here speaking on behalf of women and their ability to make
their own healthcare decisions after the disastrous decision from the
Supreme Court. And it has been now almost a month since the Supreme
Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ended the right to abortion, and really
upended healthcare for women across this country.
And every single day, women and providers and patients have been
shouting from the rooftops about how damaging this is, how women's
lives are now at risk. Every single day we are seeing the horrors
caused by Republicans' oppression: women forced to stay pregnant and
give birth when they don't want to; patients denied prescriptions that
they need; a 10-year-old forced to travel across State lines to get an
abortion after being raped; a woman experiencing a miscarriage left
bleeding for 10 days as providers were not clear if they could treat
her due to Republicans' extreme bans.
And all the while, Republicans have been trying to ignore the
devastation that they have caused. And even more cruelly, they have
been trying to distract us, telling us that what we are seeing isn't
really happening. They have tried to say it won't undermine birth-
control access, even as patients have been denied Plan B. They have
tried to say we don't need to protect the right to travel for abortion
care, even as some Republicans are already writing and introducing
bills to take that right away.
They have even tried to say their extreme bans won't undermine care
for ectopic pregnancies or miscarriages, even as providers have already
been forced to change the standard of care because Republicans'
dangerous abortion bans making them perform riskier, invasive surgeries
than would otherwise be necessary or even sit on their hands until
patients' vital signs drop before they can do what is needed to save
lives.
It really is unconscionable. And despite what we have heard from
Republicans, it is happening right now in this country. And I know I am
not the only one who is entirely unconvinced by Republican words about
wanting to support women and families.
I am skeptical when one Republican Senator said:

We have to start thinking in terms of some of these things
. . . to be more supportive of families and mothers.

I am skeptical when another one said:

It's not just a matter of saying, ``We are pro-life.'' It's
a matter . . . of promoting and allowing these people who are
making very difficult decisions with their lives to make sure
we can help.

I was, frankly, surprised when, just last week at a hearing that I
chaired on how this Dobbs decision threatens women's health, the junior
Senator from Kansas claimed he believes that ``family planning
opportunities need to be expanded.'' He even promised to continue
supporting ``robust funding.''
Here is the chance to match that rhetoric with action because Senator
Smith and Senator Warren and I have a bill right here that would do
exactly that. In fact, it is even called the Expanding Access to Family
Planning Act. I know Senator Smith cares a lot about this. While she
can't be here right now due to COVID, I want to thank her for her
leadership on this and explain what this bill does for her.
This bill is pretty simple. It almost couldn't be simpler. It takes
our Nation's longstanding Family Planning Program, title X, and
provides the strong mandatory funding title X needs now to support
patients across the country. That is it. It is very easy. It is very
straightforward.
If Republicans really mean what they are saying, if they are really
serious about expanding access to family planning, there is no reason
why we cannot get this done right now. After all, we are talking about
a program that has a long history of bipartisan support. We are talking
about a program that was signed into law by a Republican, President
Nixon, way back in 1970. We are talking about a program that helps
patients get the birth control they need, the STI testing and the
treatment they count on, the cervical and breast cancer screenings that
could save their lives, and the support they need to plan a family on
their own terms.
This isn't just the popular thing to do, although helping patients
get the birth control they need is an overwhelmingly popular thing to
do; this is the right thing to do. Let's get this done. It should not
be controversial. It simply expands our Nation's longstanding Family
Planning Program--a program, I should note, that we included in our
bipartisan funding bill earlier this year.
Just a few months ago, some Republicans were adamantly against any
increases for this program, but now, as we hear, they are changing
their tune and claiming they do want to support families. They do want
to expand family planning services. They want to do exactly what this
bill does--unless, of course, they don't mean it, and it is simply
rhetoric or just another Republican distraction from the reality that
has been ushered in.

[[Page S3593]]

Right now, the Republicans will have a chance to go on the record on
whether they actually support family planning, whether they actually
want to help people get birth control. And believe me, the same people
Republicans have been trying to ignore--the same people who are having
their healthcare undermined, their lives upended, their controls over
their own bodies taken away--are going to be watching us closely, and
they are not going to forget how much or how little Republicans'
promises are worth.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration
of S. 4550 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration, that
the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the
motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. King). Is there objection?
Ms. ERNST. Reserving the right to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, this bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
While the language touts supporting access to family planning, in
reality, it is likely a $5 billion gift for Planned Parenthood and
other abortion-related providers.
Prior to the Trump administration's protect life rule, Planned
Parenthood received nearly $60 million per year in title X funds. The
Biden administration reversed this rule and has aggressively deployed
title X funds to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.
Under this bill, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers
would be allowed to use the funds to build clinics, and abortion
counseling referrals would be mandatory. The bill would also force
religious providers to violate their beliefs. Congress should not green
light family planning dollars at the expense of family destruction.
For those reasons, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, there you have it--the real Republican
position on expanding family planning summed up in two simple words:
``I object.''
As much as Republicans are talking now about supporting women's
health, as hard as they might try to pretend that they do support
family planning services, when they have been given a chance today to
do exactly that--to expand a program with a long track record of
helping women get the care they need; a long history, I remind all of
us, of bipartisan support--they stood in the way.
Let's be clear. The bill that the Republicans blocked today does not
fund abortion. The truth is, title X only provides services like birth
control, STI testing, cancer screenings--services Republicans claim to
support.

We are not proposing anything radical or groundbreaking; we are
simply saying we should expand the national Family Planning Program
that already exists, the one President Nixon signed into law decades
ago, the one we have already funded before in a bipartisan way many
times.
Title X is a program that is already providing patients family
planning services and contraception, STI testing and treatment,
screenings for breast cancer and cervical cancer, and more. I know that
because I have met with title X providers and patients in my home State
of Washington many times. I would strongly urge my colleagues who block
this bill to do the same. Listen to those patients. Listen to the
doctors. Listen to the nurses in their States. This is a program we
already know helps so many people, and it can help more.
I can't say I am surprised by Republican objections today. I can't
say this is the first time Republicans have said one thing about
women's health and done the opposite, and I think we all know full well
it won't be the last.
My message to the American people who are witnessing this: Pay
attention. Pay attention. The Republican agenda is no to family
planning, no to your right to travel for the healthcare you need, and
no to your constitutional right to abortion.
Senate Democrats and I will not stop holding them accountable for
empty promises or for the devastating harm their extreme abortion bans
are now inflicting on so many patients and families.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

____________________