Nancy Pelosi: “Mr. Chairman, today I am asking my colleagues to support House Joint Resolution 36, which releases funds which support…”

“Mr. Chairman, today I am asking my colleagues to support House Joint Resolution 36, which releases funds which support family planning programs all around the world. This vote is not about supporting abortion. Not $1 of our family planning funds can be used to perform abortions anywhere in the world. This vote is about preventing abortion. This vote is about improving the health of women and children. This vote is about saving lives. U.S. family planning aid saves the lives of women, and each year around the world 600,000 women die in childbirth. If we fail to pass this resolution today, family planning and health clinics across the developing world will close. That means that a CARE program giving rural Bolivian women their first-ever pap smears will have to shut its doors. Cervical cancer is curable, but it must be caught early. I am a cancer survivor. I understand the importance of this kind of preventive health care. Women in this region of Bolivia do not have any other health care options. If the family planning clinic closes, more mothers will die from curable diseases such as cervical cancer. For 30 years the United States has been an international leader in reducing the number of maternal and child deaths through its support for family planning.”