Carolyn Maloney: “I rise in strong opposition to the Pence amendment, which will eliminate all funding for the many services provided by…”

“I rise in strong opposition to the Pence amendment, which will eliminate all funding for the many services provided by Planned Parenthood. This amendment is not merely anti-choice. It is also anti-health, anti-woman, and anti-poor, and is a thinly veiled attack on birth control. This amendment will not do anything to grow our economy or create any new jobs to help us out of this great recession. It will only turn this Nation backwards. Planned Parenthood is the Nation's largest provider of family planning services; and for roughly 60 percent of their patients, they serve as the primary care physicians, as 90 percent of the health care they provide every day is primary and preventive. This is not about abortion. The Hyde amendment is alive and well, and it prevents and restricts any use of Federal funds for abortion. This is about primary and preventive health care. This anti-woman amendment will restrict millions of women from access to family planning, HIV testing and counseling, and breast and cervical cancer screening, leaving them with nowhere else to turn. The other side's vision of smaller government would expand the government's power over women's choices. It is wrong, it is shortsighted, and it is unjust.”