Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 6918, the deceptively named Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Women and Families Act.

This bill has a simple but negative purpose: It would divert Temporary Assistance for Needy Families dollars that successfully keep needy children and families from poverty to anti-abortion centers.

These so-called crisis pregnancy centers masquerade as healthcare facilities, even going so far as to have staff dress in scrubs and white coats to mimic medical professionals.

Let's be clear: They are organizations attempting to strong-arm, manipulate, and coerce pregnant people seeking abortion care into carrying pregnancies to full term, and this is to the great disadvantage of women in need.

These anti-abortion centers are not actual medical facilities, so they are not covered by the privacy and security rules of HIPAA. With little or no consequence, staff at these facilities can lie to patients and share their personal information with anti-abortion extremists in order to survey, harass, pressure, or prosecute those seeking abortion care.

The lies these centers tell can have profound impacts on a patient's health. In Iowa, an OB/GYN has seen patients who were told at these centers that using contraceptives was the same as having an abortion.

In Massachusetts, an unqualified staff member at an anti-abortion center failed to diagnose a woman's ectopic pregnancy. That woman later required emergency surgery. Worst of all, there are no consequences to these centers for this.

A recent study of 607 anti-abortion centers across nine States found that they ``promoted patently false and/or biased medical claims about pregnancy, abortion, contraception, and reproductive healthcare providers.'' Fewer than half of these centers reported having a licensed medical professional on staff.

Unfortunately for the American people, spreading misinformation about abortion and ultimately implementing a national ban on abortion seems to be unifying objectives for Republicans here in Congress.

During our markup last week, Democrats offered a series of amendments to allow funding to these centers if they could prove that they provide medically accurate information, not harm women's health, and did not mislead or coerce women into visiting their centers.

Committee Republicans rejected all of those amendments, making it clear that their purpose is coercive propaganda, not support for pregnant women.

If Republicans want to support expecting new parents, House Democrats would welcome their backing of a fully expanded child tax credit, universal paid family and medical leave, and affordable childcare.

However, instead of considering these measures or even doing the basic business of keeping the government open, we are debating a bill going nowhere in the Senate and intended, instead, to score political points with anti-abortion groups gathering in Washington.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 6918.

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