No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOSWELL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to oppose this legislation and to focus on the importance of the health of the many women in my district and across our nation.

I stand against H.R. 3, because I believe that a woman deserves the same respect as a man. She deserves this respect as an employee, a wife, a mother, a sister, simply just for her humanity. And that respect must be real and must include important matters like access to health care.

During the 111th Congress, we made it illegal for insurance companies to charge a woman a higher premium just because she is female. We did this because to do anything else is blatant discrimination.

Yet here we are today, with a bill that would circumvent the very discrimination we stopped and would direct the Internal Revenue Service to tax a woman based on her health needs, just because her needs are different from that of a man.

Even worse, at this critical time in our economy, we are now going to tax any business that provides comprehensive health care to a woman.

So, instead of fighting for the most critical need of our nation right now, job creation, H.R. 3 picks a fight with a woman and her employer.

Why do any one of us seek to have health insurance? We choose to have health insurance in order to plan for the unforeseeable, the unknown, those emergencies that arise and for which no one can plan. No one plans to have cancer, but many Americans do. Health insurance is how each of us protects ourselves against the unknown.

This legislation says that a woman--with her own money--cannot have comprehensive health insurance without a penalty. It creates a new barrier to access to care, and puts in place a system of discrimination, backed by statute in the United States Tax Code.

For my colleagues who argue that this is to reduce the rate of abortion services, it will not. The facts show otherwise.

Access to family planning services is what reduces the need for abortion services. It is family planning services that have proven to cut the rate of abortion by more than 200,000 per year and reduce unintended pregnancies by more than 600,000 per year.

This bill was titled the ``No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,'' but it reads more like a ``Tax our Daughters Act.''

Stop this boldfaced attack on American women. Let us instead provide them with jobs and a fair paycheck.

Vote against H.R. 3. Show the women of your district, and your family, that you respect them.

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