Rep. Chu Leads Opposition to Republican Move to Defund Planned Parenthood

Today, the House of Representatives voted on two bills that would drastically reduce access to healthcare for women, H.R. 3134, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, and H.R. 3504, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Together, these two bills would leave women without preventative health services like cancer screenings and family planning and would inappropriately and dangerously change the doctor-patient relationship through unnecessary requirements and draconian penalties. Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27) managed the debate on the House floor for the Democrats on H.R. 3504 and released the following statement:

“Misleading titles cannot hide the real intent behind these bills: further undermining a woman’s right to choose, a right that has been constitutionally guaranteed for more than 42 years by Roe v. Wade. Not only do these bills attempt to politicize women’s health and limit women’s access to abortion, they would interfere with the sacred doctor-patient relationship and substitute a physician’s best judgment with the judgment of a handful of politicians.

“Defunding Planned Parenthood, as Republicans want, would have a devastating impact on women—especially women in rural communities, low-income women, and women of color —and would deny women access to preventive care, life-saving cancer screenings, and family planning services.

“It is a blatant attack on women and families to defund an organization that uses federal funds to prevent abortions and to help families stay healthy, and cannot even use federal funding for abortion. It would be the saddest of ironies that, by defunding Planned Parenthood’s critical contraception and other reproductive health services in the name of opposing abortion, we would see more unintended pregnancies and, therefore, more abortions.

“Politicians are not doctors. We should be concerned about doing our jobs and fully fund high-quality women are health care instead of trying to keep doctors from doing theirs.”