[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3184-S3186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Unanimous Consent Requests

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, as if in legislative session and 
notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged and the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4329. Further, I ask 
unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and 
passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid 
upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, 4 years 
ago today, women in America lost the right to control their own bodies 
when an activist Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. For 18 months, 
women in Wisconsin were forced to live under a law passed in 1849 and 
widely viewed as a criminal abortion ban.
  Overturning Roe was just the beginning of the Republicans' war on 
women's reproductive rights. This bill is yet another example of their 
agenda to make it harder for women to access care by stripping away 
funding for family planning clinics.
  Title X clinics serve millions of Americans and offer cancer 
screenings, birth control, and wellness exams. Republicans have already 
tried to rip this healthcare away. Their ``Big Ugly Bill'' last year 
defunded Planned Parenthood, leading to the closure of 60 clinics so 
far. And we expect that as a result of the ``Big Ugly Bill,'' in total, 
over 200 clinics will ultimately close. That is 200 fewer places that 
women can get essential healthcare, exacerbating an already dire 
healthcare crisis that families are facing.
  This administration has also withheld funding from title X clinics 
for months, threatening access to care for more than 800,000 people. 
They then delayed funding for the program again, causing even more 
confusion.
  The administration's goals are clear: They want to sow chaos and end 
access to reproductive health care. There is no reason that we, the 
people's branch, should be adding to that and further making life 
harder for the people we work for. We should be focused on expanding 
access to healthcare and lowering the cost of it, not closing more 
clinics, jacking up costs, and eroding women's rights even further.
  I will not stop fighting until every woman in this country has the 
freedom to make her own choices about her own body.
  Therefore, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, you know, it is always so interesting 
to hear the objections of my colleagues when it comes to something that 
is considered a pro-life measure. And pushing this bill forward and 
listening to my colleague--it just shows me that once again, they are 
not standing with that right to life.
  We are celebrating 250 years of our great Nation. What do we have? 
That

[[Page S3185]]

right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  Today marks 4 years since the Supreme Court corrected a blatant act 
of judicial activism that legitimized the killing of more than 63 
million unborn children.
  My colleagues across the aisle like to say: Oh, but abortion is 
compassionate.
  Think about the 63 million unborn babies--63 million.
  So, yes, 4 years ago, the Supreme Court corrected this act of 
judicial activism. With the Court's Dobbs decision, the authority 
finally returned to the States and ``we the people,'' where it belongs.
  This marked a watershed moment in the fight for life, but there is 
still so much more work to do to make certain that right is recognized, 
that right to life--the right to life, to liberty, to the pursuit of 
happiness.
  We know that one thing that needs to be done is ending all Federal 
funding of abortion services. That is important. This isn't about 
closing clinics; this is about making certain that taxpayer money does 
not go to fund those services.
  For decades, Federal law has prohibited the use of Federal funds for 
abortions, but big abortion providers like Planned Parenthood exploit 
every loophole possible to get around this restriction. It is a long 
list. They are addicted to your money to provide abortion services.
  One of those loopholes is the title X Family Planning Program. This 
program is intended to assist low-income women with family planning 
services. Section 1008 of the Public Health Service Act explicitly 
states that title X funds ``shall not be used in programs where 
abortion is a method of family planning.'' That is the law.
  This isn't about restricting healthcare; it is about--we need to 
support life, and we need to abide by the law.
  Yet, under the law, title X clinics are allowed to refer patients for 
abortions and share facilities with abortion providers. As a result, 
Planned Parenthood clinics that receive Federal family planning funds 
can share the same facility, staff, and waiting room as an abortion 
clinic. There is no division there. They are sharing that space. They 
are sharing staff. They are sharing the waiting room. You go in the 
same door, and they are thereby using taxpayer dollars.

  Now, taxpayers, including millions across the country who hold deeply 
held beliefs opposing abortion, should not have to spend a penny in 
supporting abortion providers. This is their hard-earned money. We have 
a law. The law should be abided by. That is why I am asking that we 
move forward with this bill. We have heard my colleague's objection. I 
disagree with her. We should abide by the rule of law, and we should 
support the right to life. I think everyone should stand up and close 
this loophole once and for all.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, today is the fourth anniversary of the 
Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
  I just shared some reflections about what happened in my home State 
of Wisconsin when we reverted to a law that was passed in 1849--1 year 
after Wisconsin's statehood--that was widely viewed as a criminal 
abortion ban. No abortion care was provided within my State until a 
court ultimately ruled many months later that that 1849 statute did not 
apply, but in the meantime, I heard stories from Wisconsin women whose 
lives were upended by the Dobbs ruling.
  When I think about one of the first stories I heard in those first 
months after the Dobbs decision came down, I remember a woman sharing 
with me that she was pregnant, expecting--was delighted about that--
when her water broke at 17 weeks. She went to her doctor at the 
hospital where she was planning to deliver her baby, and they said: 
Your baby has no chance of survival, and we can't do anything to assist 
you in this moment because Roe v. Wade has been overturned.
  The doctors consulted lawyers. We had lawyers actually practicing 
medicine, if you will, in the State of Wisconsin at that time, and she 
was sent home. They said to let nature take its course. Well, in her 
case, that meant facing sepsis and a fever that got worse and worse and 
worse.
  How close do you have to be to death before you can get the 
healthcare that you need when Roe v. Wade is no longer the law of the 
land?
  What it drove people in Wisconsin to have to do is consider getting 
care out of State.
  So, today, I rise in support of the women across this country who 
just want to be able to control their own bodies. Right now, 27 million 
women are living under abortion bans since the overturning of Roe v. 
Wade, and it is no secret that my Republican colleagues want to see a 
national abortion ban enacted piece by piece. Because of these bans, 
women are literally bleeding out in parking lots outside of clinics and 
hospitals. Women are developing life-threatening infections like the 
one I just described from my constituent in Wisconsin.
  Women are being told that they have pregnancies that are not viable 
but that they have no option for healthcare. Women are being denied the 
care that they need even in States like Wisconsin where, because of our 
courts striking down the 1849 statute that was in existence when the 
Dobbs decision came out, abortion is now legal, though many 
restrictions remain on the books.
  Women face access issues. They face barriers to accessing the 
healthcare they need. In Wisconsin, abortion services are only 
available in 3 out of our 72 counties. That leaves 69 counties without 
care, meaning the people who live there must travel for the care they 
need. They have to arrange childcare and take time off work and 
sometimes drive for hours. They have to face unnecessary barriers just 
to get the healthcare that they need.
  That is why I introduced the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act. 
This legislation would help ease the financial burdens that too many 
women face when they are trying to access safe and legal reproductive 
healthcare, oftentimes far away from their homes and their support 
systems. This bill would get women the practical support they need to 
access care, including support for travel, childcare, lodging, meals, 
and more.
  I won't stop fighting until a woman's right to choose is fully 
restored. In the meantime, the least we can do is help women access the 
care they need that the Supreme Court and some of my Republican 
colleagues continue to put further out of reach for women. I urge my 
colleagues to address the healthcare crisis we are facing in this 
country by reducing the barriers that women face to get the healthcare 
they need.
  Therefore, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that 
the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4922, 
introduced earlier today; further, that the bill be considered read 
three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered 
made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection?
  The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I object.
  We just talked about the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, 
which would ensure that taxpayer funds aren't used or flow--these 
family planning funds--to abortion providers.
  What Senator Baldwin has talked about in this bill is the 
Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, and what it would do is make 
obtaining abortions easier. It would make it easier because it would 
allow them to be paid for by tax dollars. Let's let this sink in for a 
minute. This bill would authorize hundreds of millions of taxpayer 
dollars to fund, as my colleague said, the travel, the lodging, the 
meals, the childcare, and all of the other expenses that are associated 
with obtaining an abortion. Four years after Dobbs rightfully returned 
this issue to the American people and their elected representatives, 
this very legislation would undermine that decision by using Federal 
dollars to facilitate and fund abortions across State lines.
  Now, we all want healthy moms and healthy babies--that is a goal that 
everyone shares--but instead of supporting pregnant women by making 
grants available to pregnancy resource centers, our colleagues across 
the aisle would rather spend that $350 million in taxpayer funding each 
year to eliminate what makes obtaining an abortion

[[Page S3186]]

inconvenient. That is absolutely atrocious. Democrats claim to be the 
party of choice, but bankrolling the entire abortion process only 
increases the pressure on women to choose abortion by making it the 
more financially feasible option. There is no choice in that. A 2004 
study found 64 percent of women felt pressured by others to have an 
abortion.
  If Congress truly wants to respect the conscience rights of millions 
of Americans and actually protect women, children, and families, it 
should reject this legislation and pass the Title X Abortion Provider 
Protection Act.
  For all of these reasons, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  The Senator from Mississippi.