No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, a bill falsely advertised as pro-family and supporting American values.

If they actually care about defending the values of our Nation and of the well-being of American families, I ask my colleagues across the aisle to offer legislation that reflects the priorities of American families instead of debating a bill that the Republican leadership just threw on the calendar at the last minute because their original abortion bill was too extreme, even for them.

Today, we should be discussing ways to ensure every woman can put food on the table by raising the minimum

wage, like 29 States have done, and by passing equal pay for women. We should be discussing how to ensure that every person who dreams of a higher education has access to it by working with President Obama on his community college proposal. We should be discussing legislation to allow 43 million workers to take time off when they are sick and to make sure parents can take time off with their new babies.

These are the family-centered priorities that reflect our values as a nation, and these are, certainly, the challenges that my constituents in south Florida sent me here to tackle. Instead, we are debating a bill with an underlying principle that has already been codified.

Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle know that a regressive policy of banning taxpayer funding for abortion, which only serves to punish our Nation's poor and most vulnerable women, already exists. As the President said Tuesday night, while we may not agree on choice, we can at least agree that the best people to make these decisions for women are not politicians. Building on the zeal to interfere in the health decisions of women, this bill goes even further by tying a woman's health options to her income.

A strong majority of Americans agree, including 62 percent who identify as Republicans, that abortion is the wrong issue for Congress to be spending its time on. I agree with them. When my colleagues are prepared to work on legislation that truly addresses the concerns of the American people, we stand ready to work with them.

Listen to your Members who sounded the alarm bell on the original bill that was pulled off this floor, and get your priorities straight.

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