Jimmy Panetta

Mr. PANETTA

Mr. PANETTA. Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 7, a bill which brings permanency to the Hyde amendment, a bill which attempts to take away low-income women's reproductive rights. Therefore, I submit to you that it is a bill more about divisive politics than decent policy. This past Saturday, I joined hundreds of my constituents on The National Mall. We demonstrated our support for reproductive rights and for women's health care across our Nation. In my district, on the central coast of California, we have an organization that administers those types of essential services. Mar Monte Planned Parenthood provides over 60,000 preventive, reproductive, and wellness healthcare visits each year, and for some that is the only health care they can get or they can afford. Madam Speaker, the Hyde amendment isn't going anywhere, whether we like it or not. So I submit to you that it is these types of bills that do nothing to bring Congress together and everything to drive us apart because it is bills like H.R. 7 that can harm the most vulnerable in my community and across our Nation. That is why I respectfully ask my colleagues to oppose H.R. 7.