thanks for watching. today is international women s day. guess how the republicans in counsel operated the occasion. they debated a bill to restrict abortion rights for women. it s yet another bill criminalizing doctors who perform abortions. 129 female democrats in the senate, well, they have had enough n a letter to speaker boehner, they wrote, it s time for you to put up an end tight tax on women s health care and to work with the senate to get back to the american people s top priority, creating jobs and boosting our economy. the war on women s health care is taking place really all over the country, when you look at it at every level of government. last year this is an astounding number, last year, more than 1100 reproductive health restrictions were introduced in all 50 states, restrictions to abortion rights skyrocketed to record levels in 2011. nine states, count them, nine states voted to reduce funding for family planning programs. texas reduced its reproductive health budg
when republicans took over the house back in january, their first big named bill was hr2. that was their repeal health reform bill, right? then the very next bill, the very next one they filed, hr3, was the same abortion ban they re voting on now this week again basically it s the same thing. since republicans have taken over, it has been abortion day a lot in washington. in february, house republicans held a vote to eliminate all funding for planned parenthood across the country as a way to stop abortion. the same month, eliminated funding for family planning programs across the country as a way of trying to stop abortion supposedly. in april when we had the first threat of a government shutdown under house republican control, what was the sticking point? what were republicans willing to shut down the federal government over? abortion obviously. in may, house republicans passed their praise the hr3 antiabortion bill. the same month there was an amendment going after medical schools. i
actions in passing a bill that frankly passed overwhelmingly. in april boehner appointed a solicitor general under president bush to defend doma on behalf of congress, and now clement and his firm are getting a whole lot more taxpayer money. house republicans have approved spending another $1 million on doma s defense, up from $500,000 they had already set aside. problem is most americans oppose the law republicans are fighting to uphold. a recent poll showed 53% of americans support gay marriage, but while republicans increase spending to defend an unpopular law, they want to cut programs that actually help people. in the last week alone, house republicans have proposed slashing funding for job training, heating subsidies for the poor and family planning programs, so gop lawmakers say
so-called riders, the defending of planned parenthood, npr and some other things, that they will accept some, just not the most politically charged ones. are you going to be able to support a compromise with some in it? i m certainly not going to support a proposal that says we re going to defund family planning programs and funds that go to provide for cervical cancer screening for women. that s unacceptable. that s part of what i was saying. you didn t rule them all out. that was the democratic position three weeks ago. there are a whole lot of ryders in there. whether or not there are some in there people could live with, if they were modified. you can change the language, amend it, so i m sure they re looking at things like that, but again, those ryders that
family planning programs are available. and we were supposed to be talking about family planning last night and it devolume offed into another die tribe on abortion. the family planning services that planned parenthood provides are all about very fundamental services. they do breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings. they provide all the various family planning options, birth control pills or many of the other products that are on the market. so many women speak out for those services. we all know someone that has had to end a pregnancy using some of these kinds of methods that he was graphically describing on the floor. i don t think any of us know anyone who did that gleefully, which is part of what s implied