Senators Collins, Kirk, Murkowski Introduce Measure To Investigate Planned Parenthood Practices, Protect Women's Health

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced legislation today that would promote and protect women’s health and also investigate Planned Parenthood’s practices following the release of several videos regarding the organization’s sale of fetal tissue. Senator Collins spoke from the Senate floor to urge her colleagues to support this legislation.        

     The bill would require the Department of Justice to investigate whether Planned Parenthood or its affiliates have engaged in any illegal activity pertaining to fetal tissue and submit a report to Congress on their findings within 90 days. Because activities involving fetal tissue have no relationship to Planned Parenthood’s primary mission of promoting and protecting women’s health, this legislation would defund any affiliate or subsidiary of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America that receives any compensation for engaging in these activities.      

     “I was sickened when I viewed the recently released videos featuring Planned Parenthood physicians in both their edited and unedited versions. The callousness that the Planned Parenthood employees displayed in discussing the sale of fetal tissue is appalling,” said Senator Collins from the Senate floor.      

     “We do, however, need to keep in mind the fact that Planned Parenthood provides important family planning, cancer screening, and basic preventive health care services to millions of women across the country.  For many women, Planned Parenthood clinics provide the only health care services they receive,” continued Senator Collins. “It would be premature to totally defund Planned Parenthood immediately until we know more facts.”         

     At present, no Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state of Maine currently engage in fetal tissue sales. If Planned Parenthood were defunded, other family planning clinics in Maine – including community health centers – would see a 63 percent increase in their patient load.  In addition, these other family planning clinics receiving Title X family planning funds are predominantly in the central, western, and northern parts of Maine – none are in the area currently served by Planned Parenthood.   The bill introduced today would accomplish three important goals:  

To download Senator Collins’ full statement on this legislation from the Senate floor, click HERE.

Senator Collins’ statement, as prepared for delivery:

MR/MS. PRESIDENT, this afternoon the Senate will be voting on a motion to proceed to a bill that will completely eliminate all federal funding for Planned Parenthood. While I do not support this legislation, I have received assurances from the Majority Leader that, should the motion to proceed succeed, there will be ample opportunity to offer amendments. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to offer an alternative approach, which Senator Kirk and I will offer as a substitute for the bill.

Throughout my service in the Senate, I have been a strong proponent of family planning and measures to promote and protect women’s health. The fact of the matter is that the best way to reduce the number of abortions in the United States is to ensure that women have access to the family planning services they need to protect against unintended pregnancies. That is why I have long supported the Title X family planning program.

My support for family planning aside, I was sickened when I viewed the recently released videos featuring Planned Parenthood physicians in both their edited and unedited versions. The callousness that the Planned Parenthood employees displayed in discussing the sale of fetal tissue is appalling. The videos also raise valid questions about the ethics and legality of Planned Parenthood’s practices, and, as a result, I believe that a full investigation is warranted to determine if Planned Parenthood broke federal law prohibiting the sale of fetal tissue. Reviews by state medical boards also are warranted since it appears that some Planned Parenthood doctors may have been putting the procurement of fetal organs ahead of the well-being of their patients.

We do, however, need to keep in mind the fact that Planned Parenthood provides important family planning, cancer screening, and basic preventive health care services to millions of women across the country. For many women, Planned Parenthood clinics provide the only health care services they receive. The Title X federal family planning funding that goes to Planned Parenthood already cannot be used for abortions, and the federal Medicaid funding it receives can only be used for abortion in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother is at risk.

Some contend that other health providers – such as community health centers – could fill the gap in family planning and other women’s health services if federal funding were to be cut off to Planned Parenthood. In my state, the four Planned Parenthood clinics see almost 40 percent of the patients seeking Title X family planning services, and treat virtually all of the patients seeking these services in southern Maine. By way of contrast, the twenty community health center sites in Maine that receive Title X funding see just 17 percent of the patients seeking these services.

If we were to defund Planned Parenthood, other family planning clinics in Maine – including community health centers – would see a 63 percent increase in their patient load. Moreover, these other family planning clinics are predominantly in the central, western, and northern parts of my state – none are in the area served by Planned Parenthood.

And keep in mind two other facts: the Ernst bill calls for immediate defunding of Planned Parenthood, and none of the Planned Parenthood clinics in Maine engages in the reprehensible practice of procuring and selling fetal organs or tissue. How is it fair to force women to change their health care provider when in the case of Maine’s clinics, there is no evidence at all that they have engaged in a practice that is abhorrent to most of us?

I just don’t see how we can ensure that all of the patients currently served by Planned Parenthood can be absorbed by alternative health care providers. The bill that has been proposed by my colleagues would require women to give up the health provider of their choice when we don’t yet know all the facts about Planned Parenthood’s actions. I am therefore joining my colleague from Illinois, Senator Kirk, in introducing legislation that would require the Department of Justice to investigate whether or not Planned Parenthood or its affiliates have engaged in any illegal activity pertaining to fetal tissue and submit a report to Congress on its findings within 90 days.

Activities involving fetal tissue have no relationship to Planned Parenthood’s primary mission of promoting and protecting women’s health. While Planned Parenthood claims that only a very small number of its affiliates engage in the sale of fetal tissue and organs, let’s determine the facts. These are the organizations that have sparked the outrage, and I believe that these are the organizations that should be the focus of our efforts. Our legislation would therefore defund any affiliate or subsidiary of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America that receives any compensation for engaging in these activities.

This more targeted approach accomplishes three important goals:

First, it would not cause women served by the Planned Parenthood clinics that do not engage in these reprehensible fetal tissue sales to lose their health care provider for basic services like family planning and cancer screening.

Second, the bill would allow Congress to get the facts to determine if those few Planned Parenthood affiliates that do engage in fetal tissue procurement have broken the law and violated medical ethics.

And, third, the bill would defund those affiliates, subsidiaries and clinics that do receive compensation for procuring fetal organs and tissue, thus putting an end to this reprehensible trafficking in fetal tissue.

MR./MS. PRESIDENT, I believe that this more targeted approach is the best way forward, and I encourage my colleagues to join us as cosponsors of this legislation.