[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14513-14519]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                ABORTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to ask a very 
serious question: Why is Congress, why are we, subsidizing the abortion 
industry?
  Most Americans, I suspect, probably have no idea whatsoever that our 
tax dollars have enabled abortionists to establish and to run hundreds 
and hundreds of abortion mills throughout America. Indeed, America's 
biggest abortion chain is Planned Parenthood. Each year, approximately 
290,000 children are aborted in Planned Parenthood clinics. Each year, 
Planned Parenthood gets more than $335 million in taxpayer funds, 
including huge amounts from the Department of Health and Human 
Services' title X program. Tragically, as their business grows, and 
they now have some 850 clinics and they have embarked on a building 
binge, and this chart clearly shows that as the taxpayer funds go up, 
the number of abortions go up because more venues are then provided to 
destroy the unborn child.
  It may come as a surprise to at least some of my colleagues and the 
American people that the babies lost and women wounded by abortion are 
disproportionately African American and Hispanic. A study in 2005 found 
that 62 percent of Planned Parenthood abortion mills are located in 
African American communities. And when Hispanics are included, that 
percentage rises to over 70 percent. Of course, every human life is 
sacred regardless of race, gender, disability or condition of 
dependency. Every human life is of infinite value. But the 
disproportionate number of minorities who are aborted in Planned 
Parenthood clinics begs the question.
  Two weeks ago, Dr. Alveda King, niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther 
King, said here in Washington, ``Defending human life is part of the 
civil rights struggle.'' She said, ``We are uniting civil rights and 
moral rights to fulfill the dream of what my uncle called the beloved 
community.'' She goes on to say that ``America needs to know that black 
leaders do support life. We start where life begins, with the babies, 
and we will march until abortion, racism, and all of society's ills bow 
to the truth that we are all one race.''
  Dr. King, who has had two abortions herself, now boldly speaks out 
for both victims of abortion, the unborn child and his or her mother. 
She has said, ``The government should not be subsidizing racism, but 
that is exactly what it's doing through Planned Parenthood.''
  Mr. Speaker, it is time, it is long past time, for us to take a 
serious, and for some a second, look at Planned Parenthood, its 
origins, and the fact that since 1973, the year the U.S. Supreme Court 
issued its infamous Roe v. Wade decision and legalized abortion, that 
approximately 4.5 million babies, disproportionately African American 
and Hispanic, have died in Planned Parenthood clinics.
  It is time to look past the slogans and the rhetoric and the cheap 
sophistry, the euphemisms that are used to mask and to cloak this deed 
that kills a child. Abortion is big business and it is destroying the 
next generation of Americans, and you and I, Mr. Speaker, are 
subsidizing it.
  Tragically, the seemingly benign Planned Parenthood, which works 
overtime to market its image and its brand, is in the grisly business 
of dismembering the fragile bodies of unborn children with chemicals, 
sharp knives, and hideous suction machines that are 25 to 30 times more 
powerful than a vacuum cleaner used at home. Planned Parenthood ought 
to be known as Child Abuse, Incorporated for the large number of 
children, 4.5 million, that it has already killed and continues to kill 
all while being subsidized by American taxpayers. This is not a 
business of healing or nurturing or caring. This is a business of 
destroying the most vulnerable and weakest members of our society.
  For Planned Parenthood, business is good. Violence against children 
pays handsomely. In 2006, it actually increased the number of abortions 
it performed by nearly 25,000, while abortions nationwide were in 
decline, for a total of 289,750, a new pathetic record of kids killed 
even for Planned Parenthood. For so-called medical abortions, Planned 
Parenthood quotes prices from $350 to $650. For surgical abortions, 
they earn $350 to $900 apiece. These fees for so-called ``services 
rendered'' boosts the bottom line of this big business.
  To put the annual number of child deaths in perspective, I ask my 
colleagues and the American people to picture this: 71,000 fans filled 
the University of Phoenix stadium to watch the Super Bowl this past 
February. It was a great game, my team won, the Giants. But the number 
of unborn babies whose lives were taken from them before they could 
take their first breath by this one corporation in one year could have 
filled that enormous stadium more than four times over. Planned 
Parenthood is now responsible for committing more than one out of every 
five abortions performed in the United States of America.
  If the number of abortions performed alone doesn't convince you of 
Planned Parenthood's agenda, just compare it with other services it 
provides to pregnant women. Planned Parenthood, they have got the word 
``parenthood'' in their slogan, in their name, but they provided a mere 
11,000 clients with prenatal care. You walk into what is called a 
Planned Parenthood clinic, and you would expect to walk out with a 
baby, but prenatal care is not something they put an emphasis on. That 
is a ratio of one parent to every 26 women who lose their children to 
abortion. After it was revealed that Planned Parenthood had referred a 
meager 1,414 clients to adoption services in 2004, Planned Parenthood 
stopped reporting this miniscule adoption referral number. So, again, 
those children who go to abortion clinics with their mothers, in utero 
that is, don't walk out as potential adoptees.

                              {time}  2000

  To me, Mr. Speaker, this record doesn't seem to be that of an 
organization dedicated to preserving women's choices. I might add that 
these tiny lives are being extinguished. There are thousands of 
American families waiting to adopt, and we all know that. There are 
upwards of 2 million families who would love to adopt, but 
unfortunately, the babies are aborted.
  Finally, if that is not enough, this so-called ``pro-choice'' 
organization does everything within its power and massive budget to 
prevent women from knowing all of their options and from being certain 
that their choices are truly informed.
  Let's not forget that Planned Parenthood lobbies this Chamber and the 
Senate and, certainly, in each legislature throughout the country, and 
they litigate and litigate and bring court cases over and over again in 
all of the States, against virtually every child protection initiative 
at both the State and Federal levels, including that of parental 
notification, spousal notification, women's right-to-know laws, 
informed consent laws--which actually bring down the numbers when women 
get the booklet and are informed about the growth and about the 
development of their child as well as about deleterious effects to 
their health--waiting periods, partial-birth abortion, the Unborn 
Victims of Violence Act, statutory rape reporting laws, and of course, 
abortion funding bans.
  Can we trust Planned Parenthood? They say their vision is to be the 
Nation's most trusted provider of sexual and reproductive health care. 
This is from an organization that targets minorities, that performs 
millions of abortions and barely even attempts to help women carry the 
babies to term. Reproductive health should include, not exclude, 
babies.
  Mr. Speaker, the truth about Planned Parenthood's long, systematic 
destruction of vulnerable human life, at long last, must be brought to 
light. The cover-up must end.
  I would like to yield to the distinguished gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) for 5 minutes.

[[Page 14514]]


  Mr. PITTS. Thank you.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to highlight the practices of an industry 
that are characterized by death, deception and depression--the abortion 
industry--and that's just what it is, an industry.
  Since 1973 and the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, 50 million unborn 
babies have been lost. Abortion has burgeoned into a thriving industry. 
At the average cost of hundreds of dollars per abortion, the abortion 
business is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States. It's 
even bigger than that internationally, and the American taxpayer 
subsidizes it. Abortion providers continue to receive hundreds of 
millions of dollars of taxpayer funds every year. The U.S. Government 
subsidizes this industry every year in every budget.
  Planned Parenthood has emerged at the front of this big business as 
one of the top abortion providers in the country. Two years ago, this 
not-for-profit organization posted record-breaking profits. Last year, 
it reported even higher profits, but at whose expense does this profit 
come? It's at the expense of helpless unborn children, young girls and 
women.
  While the government continues to provide a slush fund for abortion 
providers, a mother mourns the loss of her child; siblings grieve their 
unborn brother or sister, and grandparents lament the grandchild who 
was taken from them. My own words could never fully capture the pain 
that has been meted out by the hand of the abortion industry. So, 
instead of sharing my own thoughts, I'll give voice to the stories of 
so many who have been silenced by the powerful abortion lobby.
  One woman tells the story of how she was routinely raped by her 
father. When she was 16, he forced her to have an abortion at a Planned 
Parenthood clinic in Cincinnati where she reported the abuse to the 
staff. However, the staff chose not to report her case to law 
enforcement. It was not until the girl told a school counselor that the 
authorities were notified so that they could intervene and rescue her.
  The bottom line is that abortion clinics are habitually covering up 
abuse by failing to report statutory rape, and we are funding those 
clinics with title X money. We must stop funding clinics that 
facilitate abuse and that cover up crimes against children.
  Another woman from Nebraska recently filed a lawsuit against Planned 
Parenthood after undergoing an abortion that resulted in the 
perforation of her uterus and in a severe loss of blood. According to 
reports, the abortion practitioner began the procedure with a shot in 
the woman's uterus, and she immediately complained of severe pain. She 
told the practitioner to stop, but he allegedly replied ``We can't 
stop.'' The woman was then restrained by three Planned Parenthood 
employees while the practitioner completed the abortion. She 
experienced severe pain, bleeding and three seizures by the time she 
arrived at the hospital. A hospital report stated that her uterus was 
perforated during the abortion and that doctors had to perform an 
emergency hysterectomy because of the severe damage to her body. The 
doctors later said that the botched abortion could have killed her.
  The abortion industry makes false claims that abortion is harmless 
and that it is a simple procedure. They often use safety as a talking 
point for legalization. However, the truth is that abortion, legal or 
not, is a risky procedure that carries potentially serious side effects 
for the health of the woman. Unfortunately, the deceit does not end 
there. The abortion lobby denies the reality that abortion has a very 
powerful and lasting emotional impact on most women, but real human 
stories decry this lie. Again, I'll share not my words but the stories 
of those who've experienced the pain themselves.
  A 14-year-old girl writes ``This was something I really never thought 
I'd go through, something I don't want anyone else to have to go 
through. I did not feel a thing physically, but emotionally, I'm 
scarred for life. The day it came, I was so upset: the last time I 
could sing or talk to my baby again. Not even a day after, I'm already 
regretting it, just sitting here, wondering what he or she would have 
become.''
  While we continue down the path of deception, women continue to 
suffer. I hope, during this hour, we might remember the lives of those 
who could have been. We might remember the lives of unborn children who 
are lost. We might remember the lives of women and families who carry 
hurt and pain from an experience that they were told would be harmless.
  Organizations like Planned Parenthood claim to work to reduce 
abortions, but ironically, they remain the top abortion provider in the 
country. Every Federal dollar to support abortion providers is a dollar 
to help the abortion industry flourish at the expense of women, of 
young girls and of unborn children.
  As the chairperson of the Feminists for Life, Frederica Mathewes-
Green once said, ``An abortion wounds a mother's heart. They will never 
recover from the grief of an abortion. There are always two victims 
within an abortion--the baby and the mother--one wounded, one dead.''
  Mr. Speaker, the taxpayers deserve to know that their hard-earned 
dollars supposedly destined for family planning services are being used 
to subsidize the abortion industry. I urge my colleagues to oppose 
Federal funding for abortion providers and to support the Title X 
Abortion Provider Prohibition Act.
  I thank the great leader in the pro-life movement here in the House, 
Chris Smith, for leading this hour. Like my hero, William Wilberforce, 
the British parliamentarian who led the abolition movement in Britain 
because he was against slavery, Chris Smith and other pro-life leaders 
here tonight are leading the pro-life movement because we're against 
abortion.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend for his very eloquent 
statement, and I thank him for his leadership. This is the human rights 
issue of our time, and it's about time people recognized it as a human 
rights issue.
  I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. 
Pence).
  Mr. PENCE. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I'm pro-life. I don't apologize for it. I believe that the sanctity 
of life is a central axiom of Western civilization.
  Let me say, as we gather this evening under the leadership of the 
chairman of the Pro-Life Caucus here in the House of Representatives, 
Mr. Speaker, we are not really gathered this evening to debate the 
sanctity of life. We're really gathered tonight to shed light on a fact 
about Federal funding that, I think, escapes most Americans, and that 
is this simple fact:
  That the largest abortion provider in America is the largest 
recipient of Federal funding under title X.
  You know, when I'm walking down the street in Anderson, Indiana or in 
Muncie, Indiana, people know about my work on this particular issue. 
With the legislation I authored last summer during the appropriations 
process that received 189 votes to defund Planned Parenthood, one 
person after another will grab me by the elbow and will say, ``Mike, I 
did not know. I did not know that we gave a penny to the largest 
abortion provider in America, let alone the fact that the largest 
abortion provider in America, namely Planned Parenthood, is the largest 
recipient of Federal funding under title X.''
  I mean the truth is that there has been much debate since 1973 and 
the decision of Roe v. Wade about the sanctity of life and the fault 
lines of the law and life, but where there has been national consensus 
since the very early days of this debate when a Congressman from 
Illinois named Henry Hyde conceived of the Hyde Amendment, there has 
been a national consensus behind the notion that, whatever your view of 
abortion, it is simply morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of 
millions of Americans who believe abortion is morally wrong and use it 
to pay for or to subsidize the performance of or the promotion of 
abortion.
  The Hyde Amendment gave birth to what has been the dominant 
philosophy in our foreign aid funding. It's called the Mexico City 
Policy. It essentially says that no U.S. foreign aid can

[[Page 14515]]

go to any organization that performs or that promotes abortion as a 
means of birth control.
  You know, Madam Speaker, I really think many Americans think that 
that's the law here at home, too, that because the overwhelming 
majority of Americans think that pro-life Americans should not be 
forced to pay for abortions or to subsidize organizations that promote 
abortion, they think it doesn't happen here, when, in fact, let me say 
again that the largest abortion provider in America is the largest 
recipient of Federal funding under title X.
  Now, abortion-rights advocates and, most especially, Planned 
Parenthood would be the first to step forward to say that they don't 
use title X family planning money to perform abortions. In fact, there 
are very strict Federal regulations that are in place that require a 
separation between Planned Parenthood abortion service clinics and 
Planned Parenthood title X clinics for the poor. I suppose, while there 
have been instances of alleged misfeasance and of the commingling of 
funds, I'll leave that completely out of this conversation and will 
allow for the fact that there is this separation, but I've got to tell 
you, Madam Speaker, that anybody knows that the money that Planned 
Parenthood receives for its non abortion activities frees up resources 
to go into its abortion activities.
  The American people also deserve to know that this nonprofit 
organization received over $336 million in government grants and 
contracts, I think, in 2006. It had an excess of revenue over expenses 
of $56 million in 2005, and it had $112 million in 2006, which has 
given rise to the building spree that was reported on page 1 of the 
Wall Street Journal. Well, now Planned Parenthood is planning to go 
suburban with all new up-scale abortion mills around the country. So I 
commend the gentleman from New Jersey for bringing this conversation to 
the floor.
  I authored a bill last year in the Labor-HHS legislation that would 
have denied any Federal funding in title X from flowing to Planned 
Parenthood of America, and it received 189 votes, including 20 Members 
of the majority voting for it. If Congress ever got around to 
considering the Labor-HHS appropriations bill this year, I sincerely 
believe that that number would grow as public awareness has grown about 
the simple fact that the largest abortion provider in America, Planned 
Parenthood, is the largest recipient of Federal funding, and that ought 
not to be.
  Whatever a person's view of abortion is, it is my hope--and frankly, 
it is my prayer--that this Congress will come together in a bipartisan 
way and will implement a domestic Mexico City Policy and will say to 
the millions of Americans, to the hundreds of millions of Americans, 
perhaps, who have moral objections to abortion, we will not take your 
tax dollars and use it to subsidize the largest abortion provider in 
the United States of America. That's all we're here to talk about 
today.
  I urge my colleagues to reflect deeply on the fundamental fairness of 
this issue and to support the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act 
that would bring a change to the law. In the appropriations cycle, if 
we ever get around to it in this Congress, let's take decisive action 
to defund Planned Parenthood, not cut a dime out of title X and its 
family planning programs, but let's say no more Federal tax dollars to 
the largest abortion provider in America.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

                              {time}  2015

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I want to thank my friend for his eloquent 
statement.
  I yield to Michelle Bachmann such time as she may consume, and I 
understand some of the other Members may want to ask you to yield for a 
colloquy or for some comments.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Congressman.
  I'll be referring to an article that came out. It's a shocking 
article that many of us in this Congress read just a few weeks ago, and 
I commend the American people to pick this up on the Internet or go 
find it at your local library. June 23, 2008, the Wall Street Journal 
newspaper, it's on page 1. It's an article by Stephanie Simon called 
``Abortion Provider Goes Upscale. Aid For Poor Questioned.'' And here 
is the bottom line of this article.
  It exposes the fact that Planned Parenthood, a 501(c)3 organization, 
which is a nonprofit organization--in other words, Planned Parenthood 
pays no taxes. They don't have to pay taxes because they're considered 
a nonprofit. This nonprofit is big business. It was started back in 
1916 by Margaret Sangar, a woman who promoted eugenics, and this 
organization has now become a big box retailer, big abortion, in other 
words. It is a big retailer. And it brought in, get this, $1 billion in 
revenues--$1 billion in revenues.
  Not only does this organization not pay taxes like other businesses 
do, but they receive in that $1 billion, almost one-third of what they 
receive comes in the form of your tax money, Federal tax money, State 
tax money. But get this: they receive almost $1 billion, according to 
this article, in annual revenue, one-third of that coming from Federal 
and State grants to care for women. The nonprofit ended the year with a 
surplus of a $115 million.
  So they had your money, your money that you're paying in taxes. They 
had an extra $115 million cash on hand at the year end. A $1 billion 
budget, and they had that much cash on hand, about 11 percent of its 
revenue, net assets of $952 million, almost a billion dollars in net 
assets.
  So the article asks, Why are we giving them so much money? That's 
exactly right. Why are they receiving, as Congressman Mike Pence asked, 
why are we giving them so much tax money? They have 882 clinics State-
wide, and they quietly dropped their statement that said no matter what 
a person's income, we're going to be helping those people.
  Well, let me tell you, they've made a decision, Planned Parenthood, 
that they are going to go after the affluent. How do I know that? It's 
happening in my district, and it was detailed in this article. It said 
three express centers in wealthy Minnesota suburbs and shopping centers 
and malls, places where women are already doing their grocery shopping, 
picking up their Starbucks, living their daily lives.
  Do we understand what this is? This is to promote women, to promote 
that woman intentionally take the lives of their unborn children. We 
are asking God-fearing Americans to subsidize this brutal and bloody 
procedure on a regular business in upscale shopping malls all across 
the United States.
  Not only are they not paying taxes, but we are giving them over $330 
million a year to do this dastardly deed. And when they do this, do you 
realize they could take this money and they can use it for political 
functions? I don't know how this works. What a game. Who wouldn't want 
to get in on this?
  And all across the country, we have very poor, struggling life care 
centers, organizations that are trying to give positive alternatives to 
women. They don't get these grants. They don't get them. They get local 
donations to try to help women make a decision about saving lives and 
choosing life.
  I just want to end with the fact that if we can agree on nothing 
else, it should be that the United States taxpayer shouldn't have to 
pay taxes to an organization that uses your money to politicize, yes, 
in upcoming elections candidates who give them more of your tax money. 
This is unconscionable.
  And I look so forward to hearing what our colleagues are going to 
have to say to the American people about this gross injustice. You bet 
we should defund Planned Parenthood. We should take away their tax fund 
and we should defund.
  Mr. HENSARLING. Would the gentlelady yield?
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Absolutely.
  Mr. HENSARLING. I want to thank her for bringing this article in the 
Wall Street Journal, one of America's largest newspapers, to the 
attention of this body; and obviously it is fascinating for us to 
discover that the single largest provider of abortion in the Nation,

[[Page 14516]]

Planned Parenthood, I believe performing one out of five abortions in 
America, has now planned, according to the press, a rebranding campaign 
to appeal to women of means.
  I quote from the article, A move that opens new avenues for boosting 
revenue and they hope political clout.
  And as I understand from the gentlelady from Minnesota, as I read 
through this article, that their political action arm plans to raise 
$10 million to influence the fall campaign; and as they take the lives 
of almost 300,000 innocent children, not only is the American taxpayer 
being asked to subsidize this horrid, this gruesome procedure that so 
many in America consider to be absolutely immoral, then to top even 
more indignity on the act they're going to turn around and use money 
and come back to Congress and ask for even more.
  Do I understand that correctly?
  Mrs. BACHMANN. You absolutely do. That's exactly what the article 
says. In fact, it goes on to say that it's the Federal tax law that has 
caused this tragedy.
  I'm a former Federal tax litigation attorney, and this is absolutely 
true. This is what our tax code allows. In fact, Planned Parenthood, 
who plans to raise the $10 million, as the gentleman from Texas said 
correctly, they can take that money that we taxpayers are giving them 
to mobilize voters and advocate on issues such as abortion rights and 
sex education in schools.
  Life care centers don't get that advantage, but people who advocate 
for the destruction of innocent human life get this money.
  Mr. HENSARLING. And if the gentlelady will yield again, I see in the 
same article that as the taxpayers have to subsidize all of these 
abortions, that Planned Parenthood are updating their clinics to have a 
contemporary, fun, and lively look with a new color palette that 
includes pink, orange, and teal.
  Can the gentlelady enlighten me what is contemporary, fun, and lively 
about the abortion industry?
  Mrs. BACHMANN. As the gentleman knows, there is nothing fun about an 
abortion. In fact, for many women, they are forced into abortion by a 
boyfriend who says they'll leave them, by parents who say, What an 
embarrassment. And women, often against their own desires, are forced 
into getting an abortion when they don't want to.
  Mrs. SCHMIDT. Could you both yield on that? Because I do want to talk 
about that.
  This is something that's happened in my district at least on two 
occasions. You know, in 1997 it came to light the title X grantees were 
not reporting rape, incest, sexual abuse, child abuse, and 
molestations. In response, Congress rightfully included language in the 
1999 Labor HHS bill to appropriately clarify that title X grantees are 
not exempt from State reporting laws. I only wish that Cincinnati 
Planned Parenthood was doing this because let me tell you what is going 
on there.
  Cincinnati Enquirer on May 10 of last year reported an incident of 
two young ladies who were victims of sexual abuse, and I would like to 
talk about the kind of sexual abuse these ladies incurred.
  The first one was a young lady who was continually molested by her 
father. The abuse began when she was just 13 years of age. In November 
of 2004, she was forced by her father to have an abortion. She told the 
employees at Planned Parenthood that she was being forced to have sex 
and do things she didn't want to do. But despite this fact, no report 
was made. She was sent home to endure another year-and-a-half of sexual 
abuse. The abuse only ended when she told a school official what was 
going on at home.
  Thankfully, because of our wonderful prosecutor in Warren County, her 
father is now serving hard time in prison. Not long enough, but what 
the law allows him to serve.
  She has filed a civil case against Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately, 
even if her allegations are proved true, no financial reward can bring 
back the extra year-and-a-half of absolute abuse she had because 
Planned Parenthood looked the other way and failed to follow Ohio's 
law.
  But that's not the end of the story.
  In another case, a 14-year-old girl was taken by her 21-year-old 
soccer coach to have an abortion. She allegedly used her junior high 
school ID, and her abuser paid for the procedure with a credit card and 
driver's license and said he was her guardian. The abuse was never 
reported.
  According to the same Enquirer story regarding the second case I 
mentioned, a form filled out by Planned Parenthood said, The patient 
reports pregnancy is a result of sexual assault by a stranger. After 
consultation with an attorney, report of a crime to the police was not 
made due to physician-patient privilege. We are prohibited from 
reporting as no severe bodily injury was reported. What about the 
mental injury, the mental abuse that this girl suffered?
  You know what happened? A year later, I think it was a year later, 
some time later, she was back at the doctor with her parents, and the 
doctor said, Do you know your daughter had an abortion? That's how the 
parents found out she had an abortion, and she fessed up it was the 
soccer coach.
  The young lady's attorney said that the prosecutors in four local 
counties know of no such exemption to the reporting issue, and it isn't 
in Ohio.
  You know, we're giving this organization money, and this organization 
is forcing these young women to have abuse.
  I would like somebody else to continue with this colloquy because I 
think this is a very serious issue.
  Mr. HENSARLING. Well, I thank the gentlelady from Ohio for yielding 
back, and I know there are other speakers who wish to speak, so I will 
try to be brief.
  The gentlelady from Minnesota spoke about life-saving centers. On 
Monday of this week, I went to one. I didn't go as a Member of 
Congress. I went as a father. And my wife and I have two small 
children, 6 and 4, and it was time to donate their old baby beds and 
donate a bunch of maternity clothes. And I had heard about the Dallas 
Pregnancy Resource Center. A bunch of great ladies in Dallas, Texas, 
trying to save human life. I had heard of them. I didn't think they 
knew me, and I showed up on a Monday morning unshowered, unshaven, in a 
T-shirt to donate two baby beds and a box full of maternity clothes 
that belonged to my wife. They were very thankful for the gift.
  And when I was filling out the paperwork, they realized who I was and 
insisted that I tour the facility. And although I was unshaven and 
unshowered, I complied with their request, and I'm glad I did.
  And it is amazing to me, as I think upon my visit with these ladies 
on Monday, to think that on the one hand, you have Planned Parenthood 
getting hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money to take the 
lives of the most innocent among us, the unborn--as pictured next to 
the gentlelady from Minnesota--hundreds of millions of dollars spent on 
this abortion factor.
  And here is this one little place in Dallas, Texas, called the Dallas 
Pregnancy Resource Center, and they sit there and they counsel with 
these low-income, these mostly young teen mothers. And every time that 
they are able to convince a mother to choose life over death, they put 
a tiny, tiny set of paper footprints on a bulletin board.

                              {time}  2030

  As you might imagine, sometimes they're blue and sometimes they're 
pink, and they have the date that one human life was saved.
  To the best of my knowledge, the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center 
receives no Federal money whatsoever to save human lives, and Planned 
Parenthood takes hundreds of millions of dollars of Federal taxpayer 
money to take human life. Something is wrong in America when that takes 
place.
  We need to stop, we need to take note of what is taking place. In my 
head and in my heart, I can come to no other conclusion but that life 
begins at conception. I take it as a matter of faith, but if I didn't 
take it as a matter of faith, how can any human being, how

[[Page 14517]]

can any American, look at that picture next to the gentlelady from 
Minnesota and conclude otherwise?
  In our Founding documents, the right to life is unalienable. How can 
this body ever act otherwise?
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. At this time, I yield to our friend and 
colleague, Mr. Sali.
  Mr. SALI. Madam Speaker, Mother Teresa once said: ``Any country that 
accepts abortion is the poorest of the poor.'' On that basis, I fear 
that our own great country is in serious trouble.
  While current law forbids family planning agencies from using Federal 
funds for abortion, those same organizations are able to receive those 
title X funds for their other family planning services, even if the 
organizations also provide and even promote abortion.
  Today, as long as the bookkeeping of the two divisions is kept 
separate, these organizations can reallocate their resources and free 
up money for providing abortions. In other words, it appears that an 
accounting gimmick masks the way Planned Parenthood uses Federal 
dollars to fund its abortion services.
  As many know, Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortion 
in the country, performing more than 264,000 abortions in 2005 alone. 
However, Planned Parenthood receives more than $336 million from the 
Federal Government each year. Planned Parenthood affiliates enjoy 
special access to discount drugs, grants through the title X program, 
and a 90 percent Federal Medicaid match for family planning activities. 
In effect, Congress is playing favorites by subsidizing the largest 
business in the abortion industry.
  Now, lest there be any confusion, abortion is an ``industry'' in 
every sense of the word. Abortion providers rake in over $400 million a 
year from women and girls who believe that they are receiving a simple 
health service. However, to the tune of $372 per abortion on average, 
abortion-providing businesses are turning a major profit. For instance, 
while Planned Parenthood reports that it is a ``not-for-profit'' 
organization, it had an ``excess of revenue over expenses'' of almost 
$56 million in 2005 and $112 million in 2006. Remember, this is the 
same organization that receives over $336 million in government grants 
and contracts each year.
  I find it outrageous that taxpayer dollars are subsidizing abortion 
in the United States. The absurdity of this abuse is illustrated by the 
long-standing Mexico City policy. Instituted by Ronald Reagan in 1984, 
this policy prohibits foreign aid from going to nongovernmental 
organizations which provide or promote services related to abortion. If 
we recognize the importance of prohibiting foreign abortion providers 
from receiving our taxpayer dollars, how can our domestic policy be any 
different?
  I also adamantly oppose funding for an organization like Planned 
Parenthood that is alleged to have committed substantial fraud. The 
former vice president of finance and administration of the Los Angeles 
Planned Parenthood affiliate estimates that affiliates in California 
overcharged State and Federal Governments by $180 million, despite 
internal and external warnings that its billing practices were 
improper. If Planned Parenthood is able to abuse its government support 
by as much as $180 million in California alone, imagine the possible 
magnitude of its fraud nationwide.
  The Federal Government clearly has a significant interest in 
identifying and recovering those excess payments. However, I believe 
that any funds that support abortion are ``excess payments.''
  We in the Federal Government have no business providing money to help 
end a human life. As the Declaration of Independence makes clear, our 
Nation was founded on the idea that our Creator has endowed every 
person with ``certain unalienable Rights,'' the first of which is life. 
Now, 232 years after our predecessors signed that document in that 
First Continental Congress, now we have to ask, how is it possible that 
we in Congress are allowing the money of unsuspecting ordinary 
Americans to support businesses that specialize in terminating human 
life, when our Declaration of Independence recognizes that those are 
unalienable rights, the right to life?
  We in Congress are charged by our Nation with the responsibility to 
ensure oversight of Federal funds, and it is abundantly clear that 
providing ``excess'' funds to abortion providers is not the proper use 
of taxpayer dollars. I call on my colleagues here in the House to end 
taxpayer subsidies of abortion by ending Federal support for Planned 
Parenthood. Let us thereby begin to restore the richness of spirit that 
Mother Teresa spoke about so eloquently.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend for his very, very 
powerful statement.
  I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan).
  Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman.
  Madam Speaker, I rise to join my colleagues today in opposition to 
taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, and I particularly want to 
thank Congressman Smith for his long-time leadership on this most 
important issue, as well as Mr. Pence for his introduction of the 
legislation that will do just what we've been talking about this 
evening.
  Let me just reiterate a few of the numbers that the gentlelady from 
Minnesota pointed out. Planned Parenthood had over $1 billion in 
revenue last year, $115 million in profit, $952 million in net assets. 
That's bad enough, I mean, that they're using our tax dollars to fund a 
practice that is wrong, that is immoral.
  But add to it this fact--and I want to cite and the gentlelady did 
this as well--cite The Wall Street Journal article where Planned 
Parenthood talks about the fact that they're going to raise $10 million 
to fund their political action committee.
  So to just put it into plain language, think about what's going on 
here in this practice. Planned Parenthood is using your tax dollars to 
raise more money to run against your candidate to elect someone who 
will give them more tax dollars. Stated even more simply, using your 
tax money to run against you and run against the candidates you want to 
support, those pro-life candidates. That's what they're doing. They 
want to keep electing people that will keep this process going forward.
  This is just wrong, and it should stop. And the gentleman from Texas 
was so right when he talks about those pregnancy resource centers, 
those crisis pregnancy centers out there who are doing the bake sales. 
Our church, we help support one where they give each family a bottle 
and you fill it up with coins and you stuff a few dollars, raising 
money just any way they can to protect human life because they 
understand it's sacred. They understand it's precious. Contrast that 
with this practice that we see here that Planned Parenthood engages in, 
and frankly, contrast it with what the previous speaker just said.
  The wisdom and the vision the Founders had when they started this 
place, when they started the greatest country in history, the Founding 
statement: ``We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are 
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit 
of Happiness.''
  I think it's interesting to note the order the Founders placed the 
rights they chose to mention. Can you pursue happiness? Can you pursue 
your goals, your dreams, those things that have meaning and 
significance to you and your family if you first don't have liberty, if 
you first don't have freedom? And can you ever experience true liberty, 
true freedom, if government doesn't protect your most fundamental 
right, your right to life?
  That's what this legislation is about. It's about protecting that 
most sacred, that most precious, that most fundamental right that the 
Founders understood was central to what we call this thing America. And 
that's why I'm pleased to support my colleagues in this legislation 
this evening. I appreciate the work of the gentlelady from Minnesota 
and, of course, Congressman Smith and the entire Pro-Life Caucus.

[[Page 14518]]


  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my friend for his statement and for 
his leadership on this important human rights issue.
  I yield to my good friend from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn).
  Mr. LAMBORN. Madam Speaker, I rise with my colleague, Representative 
Chris Smith, and others to strongly oppose funding Planned Parenthood 
and other abortion providers with Federal taxpayer dollars.
  Today, in America, in order for a minor girl to receive an aspirin at 
school, or to pierce her ears, or to get a tattoo, she must not only 
inform her parents, but they must give written permission or be there 
in person. Shouldn't mothers and fathers be involved in their 
daughter's decision about something as major as getting an abortion?
  Abortion is a major surgical procedure. It is dangerous and wrong to 
cut parents out of this significant medical decision. Over half the 
States have realized the necessity of parental involvement in this 
life-changing decision and have passed laws requiring parental 
involvement.
  In polls, 80 percent or more of Americans want parental involvement 
in a decision by their minor girl in getting an abortion.
  Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry, however, seek to remove 
minors from the guidance of their parents. For example, Planned 
Parenthood illegally performed an abortion on a 14-year-old girl in 
Ohio without the knowledge or consent of her parents. As a result, this 
14-year-old girl, a victim of statutory rape, had no guidance or 
support besides that of the abortionist and the 21-year-old boyfriend 
who had impregnated her.
  Planned Parenthood is actively working against parental involvement 
laws. They recently worked with others to defeat a parental 
notification initiative in California which barely lost. They want to 
keep mothers and fathers in the dark, while their daughters undergo a 
life-changing event alone.
  For these reasons, the Federal Government has absolutely no business 
funding Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, especially not 
with our taxpayer dollars. Congress must pass H.R. 4133 which would 
prohibit Federal funding for these abortion providers.
  I urge Members of Congress to think about their own daughters and 
ask, Wouldn't you want to be there with your daughter when she's faced 
with this life-changing decision?
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my friend for his statement and for 
his leadership.
  I yield to Mr. Franks, the gentleman from Arizona.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Well, I thank the gentleman for his courageous 
and noble leadership on the part of the unborn for so long.
  Madam Speaker, Planned Parenthood is the world's largest promoter and 
provider of abortion on demand for any reason or for no reason. With 
almost 900 clinics in this Nation alone, it is by far the largest 
abortion provider in America and accounts for one in five of all 
abortions performed in this country. But because this giant, billion 
dollar, death-dealing organization operates under the disguise of a 
``family planning'' charity, it receives over $330 million of American 
taxpayers' money every single year.
  Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, has long since 
passed away, but the legacy of her work lives on, Madam Speaker. She 
once said, ``We don't want the word to go out that we want to 
exterminate the Negro population.''
  Her insidious vision of a world where her ideal of the ``survival of 
the fittest'' is advanced through race-targeted abortions continues to 
thrive through the deliberate expansion of Planned Parenthood clinics 
in the high minority populations of this country.
  Both the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease 
Control have reported that a huge majority of abortion clinics are 
located in minority neighborhoods, and some experts estimate that 
number to be higher than 75 percent.
  While African Americans represent approximately 13 percent of our 
population, more than 35 percent of abortions are performed on African 
Americans. In fact, more than one in three abortions performed by 
Planned Parenthood are performed on little African American babies.
  Recent Internet postings reveal Planned Parenthood's willingness to 
accept donations specifically earmarked for the abortion of an African 
American baby. In other words, Madam Speaker, a willingness to accept 
money specifically designated to kill a baby for no other reason than 
that he or she was black.

                              {time}  2045

  One hundred and fifty years ago, the infamous Dred Scott decision in 
the United States Supreme Court declared that the black man was not a 
person under the Constitution. That decision put the Supreme Court's 
legal imprimatur on a practice that had brutally enslaved more than 4 
million innocent human beings from Africa. It took a horrible civil war 
to reverse that despicable decision. It also took the courage, and 
ultimately the life, of President Abraham Lincoln, who had guided 
America through those dark moments because he believed in a day that 
would one day come when the black man and the white man could walk 
together in the sunlight of human freedom.
  And more than a century later, Dr. Martin Luther King stood on the 
steps of the memorial dedicated to President Lincoln and gave a speech 
that would forever change the course of history because it reminded 
America of her creed that all men are still created equal, and it 
helped Americans to finally begin, once and for all, to put away the 
evil of bigotry and prejudice against their fellow human beings of a 
different skin color. It was a great day, Madam Speaker. But only 10 
years later our memories would wane again and another Supreme Court 
decision called Roe v. Wade, along with the help of Planned Parenthood, 
precipitated the murder of more than 12 million African American 
babies.
  Madam Speaker, every victory gained in the battle to defeat slavery, 
every accomplishment that came through the civil rights movement is 
being completely overshadowed by this unspeakable tragedy.
  It is time that Americans stood up together again and remembered that 
we are the same America that rejected human slavery and worked to 
overturn decisions by our own courts, whether in the Dred Scott 
decision of 1857 or the Jim Crow laws that continued through the 1960s. 
And we are still courageous and compassionate enough to stop the 
funding of a bigoted organization like Planned Parenthood.
  Madam Speaker, it has been said that a government is what it spends. 
For this government to continue to appropriate one more penny of the 
American taxpayers' money to an organization that kills unborn children 
on the basis of race or for any other reprehensible reason is a 
disgrace that undermines the core essence of America and betrays 
everything that our soldiers lying out in Arlington National Cemetery 
died to preserve.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my friend for his eloquent statement 
and for his very strong and passionate defense of the unborn and their 
mothers.
  I yield to Dr. Broun, the gentleman from Georgia.
  Mr. BROUN of Georgia. I thank my friend for yielding. And I 
appreciate the comments that my colleague, Congressman Franks, made.
  I served on a board of directors for a crisis pregnancy center in the 
inner city of Atlanta. We were geared towards trying to save babies of 
African American moms in the inner city of Atlanta.
  I'm a medical doctor. And the whole crux of this discussion comes to 
the decision of when life begins. I introduced the Sanctity of Human 
Life Act of 2007 that defines scientifically that life begins at 
fertilization. And it's described when the cell of the spermatozoa 
enters the cell wall of the ova site and forms a one-celled human being 
called a zygote. And my bill gives the right of personhood to that one-
celled human being, whether they're black or white or any people group.

[[Page 14519]]

  And I know, as a medical doctor, that that's when life begins. And we 
have to save life. If a Nation will not protect the most innocent of 
human beings, what will it protect? And we are killing 4,000 babies 
every day, black and white. There are more black babies being killed 
than there are white babies proportionally, and that's the reason why I 
was on that board of directors for many years. And thankfully, we have 
it open and we're serving the inner city of Atlanta right now with that 
crisis pregnancy center.
  But we've got to stop the killing of these children, black and white, 
of all colors, because God cannot continue to bless America while we're 
killing 4,000 babies every day and while we're funding an organization 
like Planned Parenthood. We have to stop the funding of that 
organization. And I just encourage all my colleagues of this House to 
understand that life begins at fertilization, and we've got to stop the 
killing as a Nation.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Dr. Broun, thank you so much for those very 
strong comments and for the insights that you bring as a medical 
doctor.
  I yield 30 seconds to my friend and colleague, Michele Bachmann.
  Mrs. BACHMANN. I just wanted to end, Madam Speaker, by saying Steve 
Trombly is a top executive director of Planned Parenthood in Illinois, 
and he said, ``I would like to think of Planned Parenthood as the Lens 
Crafters of family planning.'' If you've got 882 clinics, you have $1 
billion a year in annual revenue and $330 million of that comes from 
taxpayer funding, I think that shows pretty clearly they are big 
business. They are the Wal-Mart of big abortion. They're the big box 
retailer.
  It is time to end their tax exempt status. It's a fraud. And it's 
time to stop the public financing of Planned Parenthood. It's the right 
thing to do.
  I yield back to my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey, the 
stalwart of prolife, Representative Chris Smith.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, let me conclude with just a 
couple of comments.
  First of all, I think most people need to realize who Margaret Sanger 
really was. And I've read her books; I've read her writings. She wrote 
in a book called ``The Pivot of Civilization'' that ``we are paying 
for,'' and I quote her, ``and even submitting to the dictates of an 
ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who should 
never have been born at all.'' In chapter five, she has a chapter 
called the ``Cruelty of Charity'' and takes to task those who would 
provide maternal health care and outreach to those women, poor women 
especially, in her writings. And I will put them in the Record. She 
says that ``such benevolence is not merely superficial and near-
sighted, it conceals a stupid charity.'' To her, these babies and these 
mothers should have never been born.
  Let me conclude, Madam Speaker, abortion mills don't nurture, they 
don't heal, they don't cure disease. Abortion is violence against 
children. Some abortion methods dismember and rip apart, the fragile 
bodies of children. Other methods chemically poison children. Abortion 
has turned children's bodies into burned corpses, a direct result of 
the caustic effect of poisoning. Consider a dismemberment abortion, 
this is called the D&E abortion. It is used later term, at least from 
the 20th week or so onward. These children, Madam Speaker, feel pain.
  My colleagues will remember that last Congress we brought forward a 
bill called the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act which would at least 
inform the woman that a child at this age feels excruciating pain. 
Sadly, the abortion lobby, including Planned Parenthood, lobbied 
vigorously against informing women that these children feel such 
excruciating pain, sometimes as much as four times that which would be 
felt by a newborn or a child later in his or her life.
  We need to, again, Madam Speaker, respect all human life. In the life 
of an unborn child, birth is just part of a process. It's an event in a 
child's life; it is not the beginning of life. These children deserve 
their fundamental human rights.

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