Press Releases

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) today questioned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price about the administration’s ongoing efforts to cut programs that support women and their access to healthcare.

“Family planning shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” DelBene said at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on President Trump’s HHS budget. “Democratic women, Republican women and independent women all rely on contraception and family planning to decide the course of their lives and choose when — or if — to have a child. It’s time for this administration to stop the relentless attacks on women and families. We deserve better.”

Video of DelBene questioning Price can be found HERE.

President Trump’s budget would defund Planned Parenthood – one of the largest medical providers serving 2.5 million Americans for essential healthcare such as cancer screenings and contraception. Planned Parenthood performed more than 600,000 breast and cervical cancer screenings last year. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that permanently defunding Planned Parenthood would increase the nation’s deficit by $130 million over 10 years.

The Trump administration has also reinstated the Global Gag Rule, stripped funding for international family planning and pushed for passage of the Republican healthcare repeal bill, which threatens access to pregnancy care, maternal and newborn services, breast cancer screenings and contraception.

DelBene serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and Budget Committee, both of which have jurisdiction over healthcare and budget issues.

# # #