Restoring Essential Healthcare Act

Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I actually brought a bill tonight to be able to protect the conscience rights of individual healthcare workers. It doesn't change the number of abortions in America. It doesn't raise insurance costs. It doesn't do anything else.

It just says to a nurse that doesn't want to perform abortions that her hospital can't compel her to be able to perform abortions. That seems like a pretty reasonable bill. Obviously, my colleague disagrees on that. But he wants to instead bring a bill that dramatically could increase the number of abortions in America.

There used to be a time where we used to talk about abortion being safe, legal, and rare. That doesn't even seem to be in the conversation anymore, and it is just how do we get more.

Planned Parenthood did almost half a million abortions alone. And I know there is a lot of conversation saying they do health screenings and such. They are most known for doing abortions--about a half a million of them. Planned Parenthood does two abortions a minute across the United States--a minute.

The problem is, this Planned Parenthood entity that has $2 billion in income and nearly $2.5 billion in assets is also one that has faced very serious allegations. One of the most recent serious allegations came from the ``far-right'' newspaper the New York Times.

The New York Times, which is not exactly known for being a right- leaning periodical, did an extensive article outlining the problems with Planned Parenthood all across the country. Let me just read to this body part of what the New York Times printed about Planned Parenthood.

They talked about the botched abortions that they have done in New York and the scores of allegations that the New York Times reviewed and the times that they said that Planned Parenthood gave ``poor care.''

Here is another quote from them:

In a case settled in California last year, a woman accused

the organization of improperly implanting a birth control

device in her arm and causing nerve damage.

A Nebraska clinician in 2022 did not realize that a woman

was four months pregnant when she inserted an IUD. Several

hours later, the patient was rushed to an emergency room and

gave birth to a stillborn fetus.

For months last year at the North Central States affiliate,

which oversees the Nebraska clinic, an understaffed nursing

department did not upload sexually transmitted infection test

results into charts, and patients wrongly believed that their

results were negative when they did not hear back.

Not only is Planned Parenthood doing a half a million abortions, but even according to the New York Times, the testing that they are doing and the other work that they are doing, they are botching.

This is how they listed the Omaha Planned Parenthood clinic:

[S]ewage from a backed-up toilet seeped into the abortion

recovery room for two days, according to interviews with

staff members and photographs and text messages shared with

The Times. Employees shoved exam table pads under the

bathroom door to block the leak. Patients vomited from the

stench.

Sewage seeped under the door at a Planned Parenthood

facility in Omaha last year.

[C]linic workers complained that they were learning from

inexperienced peers. More than a dozen said they did not

receive adequate training for patient intake, blood draws and

other tasks.

They go on and on and on. It is a very long article that the New York Times laid in there and talked about how that wealthy donors have stepped in to be able to help fill the gaps but that Planned Parenthood is not using that actually for healthcare; Planned Parenthood is using the money donated to them for their political operation--not patient care.

So when my colleague says that Republicans don't want to provide funding to Planned Parenthood, it is true because of not only their medical records and for what is happening all around the country in these locations, but this has become a political operation more than a healthcare operation.

We have a lot of great--I mean great--federally qualified health centers all around the country that are doing a terrific job taking care of families and women in many places, but they are not specializing in abortion. Planned Parenthood is focused on abortion. And even according to the New York Times, they are not even doing a good job at that.

So, yes, I do oppose this, and I do object to providing more money for an entity that is not taking care of even what it is already doing and is focused on taking the life of children, not protecting the lives of families.

I object.

Mr. President, I rise now to offer my legislation with Senators Tina Smith and Patty Murray to restore funding for Planned Parenthood.

That funding was gutted under the Republicans' budget bill passed nearly a year ago. In that time, 23 Planned Parenthood clinics have closed, and 75 percent of those were in rural or underserved areas. Breast cancer exams fell by 25 percent.

Planned Parenthood, unfortunately, has become a scapegoat for many Republicans. In reality, these clinics provide lifesaving primary care. They provide cancer screenings, annual exams, and testing. The majority of these clinics serve areas where there is already a shortage of providers. The fact is that they are a lifeline for rural Americans.

As our country faces a nationwide healthcare provider shortage, this body should be doing everything in its power to expand access to care and bring down costs. Instead, many Republicans remain laser-focused on forcing their agenda on the American people--an agenda that results in closed clinic doors, fewer providers, and higher costs.

The legislation that I now offer, this evening, would restore funding for Planned Parenthood clinics. It would restore lifesaving healthcare for millions of women, especially those living in rural areas and healthcare deserts.

Mr. President, therefore, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 2524 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.