Blumenthal & Democratic Colleagues Urge Senate to Protect Access to Birth Control & Reproductive Health Care

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) joined U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and other Senate Democrats on the Senate Floor in calling for passage of the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act, legislation to protect access to critical reproductive health care services such as birth control, cancer screenings, pregnancy counseling and more. Senate Republicans objected to the unanimous consent request, blocking the bill from advancing. The legislation would provide a consistent source of funding to the Title X Family Planning Program historically used by over 40,000 patients in Connecticut each year.

“Critical reproductive health care services are more necessary and are also more at risk than ever before,” said Blumenthal. “That is why a consistent, strong source of funding for Title X Family Planning Programs [is] absolutely critical and urgent. That's the purpose of the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act.”

In Connecticut, the Title X Family Planning Program has provided women with comprehensive health care services and has funded clinics across the state, including Planned Parenthood of Southern New England and the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center.     

“What we're talking about here is not only family planning, but also testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, lifesaving cancer screenings, other essential health services, and they are all now at risk. What they need is the strong and consistent source of funding that this measure would provide, doubling, literally almost doubling the number of dollars, but also guaranteeing over a ten-year period that clinics will receive this funding,” Blumenthal said on the Senate Floor. “They have done absolutely extraordinary work in delivering health services, particularly to women who are uninsured, women who are of lower incomes, and women who are younger, under 30, and that is the primary patient pool that needs these services.”

After last month’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eliminated the right to an abortion and the freedom of women to make their own reproductive decisions, Blumenthal stressed the urgency of passing the legislation.

“We'll never stop fighting for a woman's right to choose when and whether to have children. We will never stop fighting to protect a woman's right to access health care that is vital to her own and her children's health. In the face of mounting attacks on women's health, now is the time to strengthen Title X, and that is why we need this legislation.”

Before Senate Republicans blocked the measure, Blumenthal concluded by saying, “If my Republican colleagues are serious about supporting families, they ought to be eager to join us.” 

Video of Blumenthal’s remarks is available here. The full text of Blumenthal’s remarks is copied below.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal: Thank you Mr. President. I'm honored to appear with a group of my colleagues on behalf of  the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act. We're here to talk about this essential measure in the post-Roe world. That is a phrase I never thought I would ever utter anywhere, not to mention on the floor of the United States Senate. But we are living in the post-Roe world where reproductive rights are under assault as never before and critical reproductive health care services are more necessary and are also more at risk than ever before.

That is why a consistent, strong source of funding for Title X Family Planning Programs [is] absolutely critical and urgent. That's the purpose of the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act.

What it means for the state of Connecticut is in the past, $2.5 million in Title X funding, allowing patients, mostly women, 45,000 of them, critical access to comprehensive family planning and preventive health care services.

What we're talking about here is not only family planning, but also testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, lifesaving cancer screenings, other essential health services, and they are all now at risk. What they need is the strong and consistent source of funding that this measure would provide, doubling, literally almost doubling the number of dollars, but also guaranteeing over a ten-year period that clinics will receive this funding.

In the state of Connecticut, most of this funding in the past has gone to Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center has received some. They have done absolutely extraordinary work in delivering health services, particularly to women who are uninsured, women who are of lower incomes, and women who are younger, under 30, and that is the primary patient pool that needs these services.

Let me be very blunt. If my Republican colleagues truly care about supporting families, they can show it by supporting this measure and funding Title X. In the past, since its inception fifty years ago, it has been bipartisan because people agreed that families ought to be a priority. That decisions about when and whether to have children are the most important that we make. That caring for families and particularly prenatal care, screening for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screenings, these health services are vital to all of us, whether we have the patients or not and that they save funding in the long run. Preventive health care is pound-wise and it will save money.

We know the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs strips women of a vitally important freedom and puts it in the hands of government bureaucrats, the decision about when and whether to have children. The least we can do now is to fund the reproductive health care services that will save lives and save futures. Dobbs has put women at risk. It has put reproductive health care in grave jeopardy. This measure is necessary to mitigate the effects of Dobbs. More necessary now than ever before.

We'll never stop fighting for a woman's right to choose when and whether to have children. We will never stop fighting to protect a woman's right to access health care that is vital to her own and her children's health. In the face of mounting attacks on women's health, now is the time to strengthen Title X, and that is why we need this legislation.

Passing the Expanding Access to Family Planning Act will strengthen our entire health care system. It is simply critical for this $500 million, providing birth control, cancer screening, other kinds of testing and treatment to be passed. And if my Republican colleagues are serious about supporting families, they ought to be eager to join us. And I'm proud to be supporting this measure and I'm eager to see it signed into law. I yield the floor.

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