Washington, DC – Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11) issued the following statement in response to today’s House Oversight & Government Reform Hearing on Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding:
“Today’s Oversight & Government Reform hearing was nothing more than a publicity stunt aimed at laying the groundwork for a December shutdown. It’s lunacy that the most extreme faction of the Republican Party is willing to put at risk millions of jobs and the American economy over inaccurate and deceptive claims. During the hearing, I thought of the old adage ‘if you have the law, hammer the law. If you have the facts, hammer the facts. If you have neither the law nor the facts, hammer the table.’
“The federal government does not fund abortions. Planned Parenthood follows both state and federal laws for fetal tissue research which has helped virtually every person in the county in some form or fashion. In fact, the federal law regarding fetal tissue was formed during the Reagan Administration with bipartisan support. It’s unfortunate today’s Republican Party is not more like it was then. Defunding Planned Parenthood would leave millions of women without access to important healthcare services including cancer screenings, and engineering a government shutdown over this manufactured crisis is simply unconscionable.”
Press release by the Office of Congressman Mark DeSaulnier
