Barbara Boxer: “I thank my friend from Oklahoma for his generosity here. I tell him that I would really rather work with him on…”

“I thank my friend from Oklahoma for his generosity here. I tell him that I would really rather work with him on transportation. I gave birth to two premature kids, and I just don't like lectures from men about what it is like--and thank God they made it. I am pro-choice. I just have to say that using pregnancy as a political football doesn't sit well with the people I represent and the people of this country. We have to respect one another. I respect your view entirely. I am asking you to respect mine. Keep Uncle Sam out of my private life, and that of my children, my grandkids, and yours. Families will make these decisions with their God and their doctor. Ninety-seven percent of the work Planned Parenthood does has nothing to do with abortion. It is primary health care. I have to say that in 2011 Republicans threatened to shut down the government if Planned Parenthood wasn't defunded. I heard my friend from Washington, Patty Murray, say they were serious. They were going to shut down the government to deny health care to 2.7 million women and men every year--for some of them, basic health care. I will show you a particular person, Doreen from California, who said: I went to Planned Parenthood and I talked to the clinician. . . . She gave me a referral to a breast care center where I had a mammogram and a biopsy [and] was ultimately diagnosed with breast cancer. . . . I was scheduled for a lumpectomy in about two weeks.…”