Date: 2015-09-17
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. I would not be here on the floor to lend suspicion to the faithfulness of anyone. but as evidenced by what we have been hearing from our friends on the other side of the aisle. this is nothing but a politically charged debate and an undermining of womens health care. We made it very clear in the Committee on the Judiciary that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land. We know that because the Texas Supreme Court. in 2014 and 2015. rolled back the Texas law that was going to close a number of clinics evidencing and providing for womens health care. Planned Parenthood provides for 378.000 pap tests and 487.000 breast exams. 87.000 women found out they had cancer through Planned Parenthood. As it relates to the fetal tissue. we know that there are laws in place that do not allow the sale of such. but we also know the fetal tissue research has generated spinal cord. neurological research and cures. Therefore. let me say to my colleagues. the law of the land is Roe v. Wade. This is a protracted political fight. and I would only say. ask the person who filmed these particular videos. He stole the identity of his high school classmate to do this underhanded work. That shows you that this is a political effort. Madam Speaker. I rise in strong opposition to the Rule and the underlying bills. I strongly oppose this latest attempt by the Republican House majority to defund Planned Parenthood and undermine womens right to make their own choices regarding their reproductive healthcare. Instead of spending time fueling a politicallycharged attack on Americas leading provider of reproductive health care services for women. and attempting to roll back womens constitutionally protected rights. this House should be advancing legislation that will reform our truly broken immigration and criminal justice systems. We are brought here today to examine the practices and procedures of Planned Parenthood. Yet. tellingly. the Majority has failed to reach out or obtain any direct information or witnesses from Planned Parenthood. The bills before us are offered not for the purpose of exposing any wrongdoing of Planned Parenthood. but simply to sensationalize opposition to abortion and serve as a political decoy to shut down our government. The United States Supreme Court ruled over 40 years ago. in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 (1973)). that a womans constitutional right to privacy includes her right to abortion. Since this landmark decision. abortion rates and risks have substantially declined. as have the number of teen and unwanted pregnancies. Restricting all access to reproductive and womens health services only exacerbates a womans risk of an unintended pregnancy and fails to accomplish any meaningful overthrow of Roe v. Wade. In recent years. state policymakers have passed hundreds of restrictions on abortion care under the guise of protecting womens health and safety. Fights here in Congress have been no different. In my state of Texas a law that would have cut off access to 75 percent of reproductive healthcare clinics in the state was challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 and On October 2. 2014. the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a Texas law that required that all reproductive healthcare clinics that provided the full range of services would be required to have a hospitalstyle surgery center building and staffing requirements. This requirement meant that only 7 clinics would be allowed to continue to provide a full spectrum of reproductive healthcare to women. Texas has 268.580 square miles. only second in size to the state of California. The impact of the law in implementation would have ended access to reproductive services for millions of women in my state. In 2015. the State of Texas once again threatened womens access to reproductive health care when it attempted to shutter all but 10 healthcare providers in the state of Texas. The Supreme Court once again intervened on the behalf of Texas women to block the move to close clinics in my state. It seems every month we are faced with a new attack on womens access to reproductive health care. often couched in those same terms. And in fact we are here today supposedly to talk about the safety of medical care provided by Planned Parenthood. But we know thats not really the case. If my colleagues were so concerned about womens health and safety. they would be promoting any one of the number of evidencebased proactive policies that improve womens health and wellbeing. Instead. they are attacking Planned Parenthood in a backhanded attempt to ban abortion. That is their number one priority. This is certainly not about protecting womens health. its about politics. Just as the 1988 Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation Research Panel (or the Blue Ribbon Commission) sought to separate the question of ethics of abortion from the question of ethics of using fetal tissue from legal elective abortions for medical research when laying the foundation for the 1993. NIH Health Revitalization Act (which passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support). we must separate the personal views of abortion from the legal issues of federal compliance. Namely. the NIH Health Revitalization Act prohibits the payment or receipt of money or any other form of valuable consideration for fetal tissue. regardless of whether the program to which the tissue is being provided is funded or not. A limited exception. and crux of the applicable issue of legality. lies with the provision allowing for reimbursement for actual expenses (e.g. storage. processing. transportation. etc.) of the tissue. Planned Parenthood repeatedly maintains and supports that their affiliates involved with fetal tissue research comply with this requirement. In fact. of the 700+ affiliate health care centers across the country. only 4 Planned Parenthood affiliates currently offer tissue donation services and of those 4. only 2 (California and Washington) offer fetal tissue donation servicesthats 1 percent of all Planned Parenthood service centers. The California affiliate receives a modest reimbursement of $60 per tissue specimen and the Washington affiliate receives no reimbursement. It is worth noting that fetal tissue has been used for decades. Since the 1920s researchers have used fetal tissue to study and treat various neurological disorders. spinal cord injuries. diabetes. immune deficiencies. cancers and lifethreatening blood diseases. One of the earliest advances with fetal tissue was to use fetal kidney cells to create the first poliovirus vaccines. which are now estimated to save 550.000 lives worldwide every year. The most widely known application in the field of human fetal tissue transplantation has been the treatment of Parkinsons disease. Many of our other common vaccines. such as polio. measles. chicken pox. rubella and shingles. have been developed through the use of fetal tissue or cell lines derived from fetal tissue. When looking at the 1 percent of health care providers involved in fetal tissue donation and research. and no clear credible proof of illegal activity. it is obvious that attacks on Planned Parenthood are wholly misguided. Planned Parenthood has one of the most rigorous Medical standards and accreditation processes in the country. It is the only national provider that has developed a single set of evidencebased Medical Standards and Guidelines that define how health care is provided throughout the country. Guidelines are developed and updated annually by a group of nationallyrenowned experts. physicians. and scientists. including medical experts from Harvard and Columbia. Planned Parenthood affiliates must submit to accreditation reviews that include 100 indicators (or high level areas of review) and over 600 individual Elements of Performance (or measures for review). Half of these relate to the provision of medical care and patient safety. Planned Parenthood has strict requirements regarding compliance with all federal. state. and local laws and regulations. A specific area of compliance is with mandatory reporting laws and regulations regarding reporting in instances where the welfare of a minor is endangered. All staff with patient contact are rigorously trained regarding compliance with federal. state and local laws and regulations governing service to minors. Violations of mandatory reporting regulations are subject to disciplinary action. up to and including termination. It is no secret that the Center for Medical Progress is an extreme antichoice organization with a goal of outlawing legal abortion procedures in this country. To achieve that goal. they have shamelessly targeted Planned Parenthood and the funding that provides healthcare services to millions of women every year. They continue to use deceptive tactics and secret videos to try and undermine Planned Parenthood. Just like Live Action. the Center for Medical Progress is not a group that can be taken credibly. The Center for Medical Progress is simply recreating a history of doctoring and manipulating video intended to create misimpressions about Planned Parenthood. It is a coordinated effort by antichoice forcesnot only on Planned Parenthood or a womans right to choose. but on womens health care across the board. At the same time. national media is reporting about a major coordinated push by antichoice groups and Members of Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. This coordinated effort to defund Planned Parenthood is an assault on all progressive health care. service. and advocacy organizations who aim to provide vital care and services to women and men across this country. The public is standing by Planned Parenthood. which plays a vital role in defending womens health and rights. Hundreds of thousands have already spoken up. including leading groups and communities such as the growing voice of our millennial generation. My colleagues should be doing more to connect our youth and women to services that help them reduce their risk of unintended pregnancies and STDs. and improve their overall health through preventative screenings. education and planning. rather than restricting their access to lawfully entitled family planning and private health services. I urge all Members to vote against the rule and the underlying bills.