In the wake of video that allegedly captured top Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of the fetal tissue of aborted babies, the Republican Senate stepped up its systematic effort to roll back funding for women’s healthcare by considering a bill to defund the non-profit Planned Parenthood.
In response, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts gave an impassioned speech defending Planned Parenthood and denouncing her Republican colleagues. She argued that Republicans’ ideas about healthcare belonged to the 1890s or 1950s not 2015. Warren decried Republicans’ methodical effort to limit contraception, repeal The Affordable Healthcare Act and restrict access to abortion as part of a concerted right-wing attack on women’s healthcare.
Currently, Planned Parenthood receives 41% of its annual budget or $528 million from the federal government. Warren argued that abortions constitute only three percent of Planned Parenthood’s totals services and that no federal money funds these abortions except in the case of incest, rape or life endangerment.
According to Warren, the Senate’s bill if passed would deny basic healthcare to the 2.7 million women annually who visit Planned Parenthood for essential services such as: STD treatment, Pap tests, pregnancy tests and contraception.
Mother Jones reported this story on Monday August 3, 2015.