[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           PLANNED PARENTHOOD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McClintock). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 6, 2015, the gentleman from West Virginia 
(Mr. Mooney) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice my 
deepest concerns for the health and safety of the women, children, all 
babies, and families in our great country.
  Recent undercover videos by The Center for Medical Progress unearthed 
some of the most alarming information that has been hidden from the 
American people for years. These videos deeply disturb me, and I know I 
am not alone.
  The practices uncovered in the Planned Parenthood videos are 
repulsive. I never dreamed I would be standing before this body 
questioning if our own government is a willing enabler in the 
profiteering from the buying and selling of aborted baby parts.
  It is wrong that Planned Parenthood continues to do as it pleases and 
that the American taxpayers are bankrolling that organization. We are 
spending $450 million a year funding Planned Parenthood.
  That is why I sent a letter along with 134 of my colleagues in the 
House of Representatives on July 27 that calls for a full investigation 
into Planned Parenthood by the Justice Department.
  Mr. Speaker, I speak for the people that I am blessed to represent 
from the Second Congressional District in West Virginia. I am here to 
say that taxpayers should not fund abortions. Supporters of Planned 
Parenthood continually point to other services that they provide.
  There is precisely one Planned Parenthood provider in all of West 
Virginia, located in Vienna, less than an hour outside of my district, 
right here. One. Does it even provide mammograms? No, it does not.

                              {time}  1800

  However, we have more than 300 federally certified women's care 
facilities in West Virginia that do provide these essential services. 
Taxpayers should not be forced to fund abortions through Planned 
Parenthood. We should defund that organization from taxpayer funding 
dollars right now.
  Senior officials--on camera--were caught admitting to unethical, 
illegal activities in the selling of body parts.
  Let's define what we are talking about here. This is a baby 
approximately 16 weeks after the moment of conception. Human life 
begins at conception. This is a baby.
  Some would like to define it as something else--call it anything but 
a baby. They will call it a fetus, a blob of tissue, cells; but they do 
not want to call this little boy or girl a baby. However, you couldn't 
sell baby body parts, such as lungs, hearts, livers, as Planned 
Parenthood was caught doing, unless it was a baby.
  This is a baby. This is what he or she looks like. This is what 
taxpayers in this country--you, the taxpayers--are being forced to pay 
for, the killing of this baby and the buying or selling of her body 
parts. That is wrong. That is what we are standing against here in the 
U.S. House of Representatives, and we need your support in this.
  The Federal Government needs to stop enabling this black market 
business immediately. That is why I have cosponsored several pieces of 
legislation to make sure that the taxpayers and thousands of unborn 
children are protected from the activities and horrendous actions of 
Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
  H.R. 3134, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, simply 
prohibits funding of Planned Parenthood for a year to allow for a full 
congressional investigation to take place.
  H.R. 3197, the Protecting Life and Taxpayers Act of 2015--this bill 
will prohibit Federal funding of an entity that performs abortions, 
including Planned Parenthood.
  H.R. 3215, the End Trafficking of the Terminated Unborn Act of 2015--
this bill will prohibit any transfer of fetal tissue from aborted 
babies for a purpose other than disposal. This will prevent both 
publicly and privately funded research involving the remains of unborn 
children who were aborted.
  Finally, my bill, H.R. 816, the Life At Conception Act, would define 
life at the moment of conception, which is a biological fact.
  The abortion issue, actually, in this bill defunding Planned 
Parenthood--which our goal is to defund Planned Parenthood--does not 
actually stop abortion. I wish we could. Abortion is the taking of a 
human life.
  Defund Planned Parenthood is simply saying that taxpayers should not 
be forced to pay for those abortions. That is a widely accepted view of 
the majority of Americans, even those who may disagree with us pro-life 
advocates on the abortion issue. Many people think that abortion 
shouldn't be funded with taxpayer dollars.
  All of these bills are crucial to making sure that the American 
taxpayer is no longer footing the bill or condoning the barbaric 
practices of Planned Parenthood or any other organization like them 
that traffics in aborted baby body parts.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for these four vital 
pieces of legislation and remove taxpayer funding of abortion in the 
spending bills before us in Congress. That is our duty in the U.S. 
House of Representatives.
  We control spending in this Chamber. No one can tell us what to do. 
We represent the people in the districts that voted us into office. I 
am calling on the folks in this Chamber and in America to support the 
defunding of Planned Parenthood now.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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