A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Health and Human Services relating to "Ensuring Access to Equitable, Affordable, Client-Centered, Quality Family Planning Services".

Mr. President, I want to be really clear about what this vote is actually about. This vote is about birth control. This is about lifesaving pelvic and breast exams to detect cancer early, and it is about STI testing and treatments. That is the basic reproductive healthcare that title X providers deliver to communities--especially to women with the tightest budgets.

Republicans are here tonight fighting to undermine healthcare. It is really that simple. And we are here fighting to protect it.

I fought long and hard against President Trump's disastrous gag rule. It was a rule that cut title X provider networks in half. It forced entire States, including my home State of Washington, out of the Title X Program. It forced doctors and nurses to withhold information from their patients on all the options they have, including abortion, and ultimately resulted in patients traveling farther, paying more, or going without care. In short, it made it harder for women to

get birth control and other critical reproductive healthcare, and that, to me, is unacceptable.

That is why I was really relieved when, after years of fighting back against Republicans' extreme agenda, President Biden acted quickly to reverse that dangerous gag rule, and we could finally start rebuilding the title X network and providing patients with critical reproductive healthcare.

And I know that patients and providers in my State were relieved too. I heard from them firsthand earlier this month about what this means for our communities. It means that patients in Washington State and across the country can get the birth control they need to plan a family on their own terms, breast and pelvic exams to detect cancer early, STI testing and treatment, and more.

But as has been so often the case, most Republicans were not listening because, tonight, they are leading a resolution to bring back the gag rule and deny women across the country access to services made possible by title X. We are talking about basic lifesaving healthcare like cancer screenings. We are talking about STI screenings, which, by the way, are especially important as cases, which are already underreported due to decreased screenings, have been spiking now.

We are talking about birth control that so many patients depend on to stay healthy, to treat health conditions, to plan their families, and control their own reproductive health.

Talking about these issues, it is just unthinkable to me that anyone would not support this program. What are Republicans here talking about? They are talking about once again taking this healthcare away from millions of patients, and tonight they are forcing a vote on it. And some extreme Republicans, by the way, are even talking about how they think Griswold v. Connecticut--that is the U.S. Supreme Court case that first struck down a ban on birth control--might have been wrongly decided. This is chilling.

The message Republicans are sending tonight with this vote--loud and clear--is that they won't just stop at banning abortion with cruel laws like the ones we have seen in Texas and Oklahoma and across the border from Washington State in Idaho; they are determined to restrict access to all kinds of reproductive healthcare, from abortion to birth control, to STI testing and treatment.

Well, we should not stand for this. We can't just let Republicans rip away healthcare again from women and families. Patients, providers, and families across my State and across the country have spoken out loud and clear on this, and I am going to make sure that they are heard here in Washington, DC.

I will work hard to make sure we protect title X from these attacks, and I am going to make sure everyone who supports this resolution owns what this vote means and whom they are voting against: women who want birth control--and that is, by the way, two-thirds of women in this country; patients who are seeking STI screenings; patients who need a cancer screening; people who are just looking for affordable healthcare and information from providers that they trust because--you know what-- women are not going to forget this, which party is fighting to protect birth control and which party is doing everything they can to rip your birth control away.

I urge every single one of my colleagues to join with me in voting against this resolution.

Mr. President, for too long, Americans' taxpayer dollars have been used as a backdoor way to help promote abortion as a family planning service. President Trump put a stop to this. Back in 2019, he barred the Federal Government from providing these funds, the funds through the title X Family Planning Program, from going to entities that refer or provide abortions, organizations such as the big business that is known as Planned Parenthood.

Now, understand, it didn't reduce title X funding. It didn't cut one penny of it. Instead, it directed it to organizations that do not perform and do not promote the taking of innocent life.

Last year, unfortunately, the Biden administration, as was to be expected, pulled the plug on this vital protection, and now we see taxpayer money flowing once again to these abortion providers and to their referrers. This has to stop, and that is why I have worked with Representative Tony Gonzales in the House to introduce the Congressional Review Act of title X to ensure that not one more taxpayer dollar is used to fund the abortion industry.

By reversing this administration's ruling, abortion clinics will once again be excluded from receiving this taxpayer money, and it would put more money toward improving and saving lives instead of ending them.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 355, S.J. Res 41.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy) and the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Wyden) are necessarily absent.