[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12021]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 ZIKA IS A GROWING PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS

  (Mr. DEUTCH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DEUTCH. Mr. Speaker, when we left Washington 7 weeks ago, there 
were 311 Zika cases in Florida, and no local infections. Now there are 
over 600 cases, including 56 local infections, and the number of cases 
in pregnant women has doubled.
  Rather than meeting the serious public health crisis with serious 
policy, Republican leadership is playing a dangerous game by blocking 
Zika funding to make a political statement about Planned Parenthood and 
abortion.
  We get it. You oppose women exercising their constitutionally 
protected rights. You would like to live in a world where women don't 
have access to safe and legal abortion. You want to live in a world 
where Roe v. Wade is not the law of the land and where women do not 
have access to contraception. Enough.
  In the real world, Zika is spread by mosquitoes and Zika spreads 
through sex. Safe sex means fewer infections, and Planned Parenthood 
will help in this fight.
  It is time to protect American families in the real world, where the 
Constitution protects women's health care rights, and where we are 
facing a public health crisis from the Zika virus.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge Republican leaders to listen to anxious 
Floridians, Democrats and Republicans alike, who want Congress to act 
for them and not for attempted political gain.

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