[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5672]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                A KABUKI DANCE OVER CONTRACEPTIVE PILLS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Speier) for 4 minutes.
  Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, the Kabuki dance is almost over, and like 
many of you, I'm wondering if we have lost our senses. By all reports 
by Leader Reid and Speaker Boehner, they are very close. It's not about 
money. Do you know what it's about? It's about contraceptive pills. I 
can't believe that we are sitting here today, about to shut down the 
government, over contraceptive pills--because that's what it's all 
about.

                              {time}  1120

  It's all about defunding one organization, Planned Parenthood, that 
provides explicitly and only services around contraceptive pills, 
breast cancer screenings, STD screenings, and cervical cancer 
screenings. Not one dime goes for abortion services. In fact, the 
services provided under family planning have to be excluded completely. 
Different locations, different service providers, different staff. And 
on top of it, it's all audited. So not one dime for abortions. This is 
only for family planning services.
  So in the end we're going to go to the American people and say, yes, 
we shut down the government, we told all our men and women serving in 
faraway places, trying to keep the world free, and keep it free for us, 
and keep terrorists at bay, we are going to tell them, no, you are not 
going to get paid for a while because we didn't want to fund 
contraceptive pills for women who are poor in this country.
  The women who access Planned Parenthood, and one in five women 
accesses Planned Parenthood at some time in her life, the average 
income is $33,000 a year. These are women who can't access health care 
for reproductive services because they're working in jobs where they 
don't have health insurance. And we're saying shut down the government. 
Shut down the government. Don't pay our men and women serving overseas. 
Close down the national parks. Make sure none of our exports get to 
their destinations. Don't let any more small business loans be offered. 
Just shut it down, because we don't want to make contraceptive pills 
available to women in this country. It's absolutely shameful.
  This is a message to Speaker Boehner. Mr. Speaker, this is your 
opportunity for a profile in courage. This is your opportunity to say 
to your caucus and to the American people, I am not going to allow this 
country to be shut down over contraceptive pills.

                          ____________________