Ted Cruz: Ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood should be a ‘100 to nothing vote’

On Monday, the U.S. Senate voted to pass a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through December. The CR included funds for scandal-ridden Planned Parenthood. After voting against the CR and attempting to table it, Senator Ted Cruz took to the floor to broadcast the truth about Planned Parenthood, calling on all Americans to watch the videos.

Cruz’s sixty-minute speech can be watched in full here. Below is a nine-minute clip.

Referring to Planned Parenthood as a “criminal enterprise,” Cruz laid out the case against giving the abortion giant a single cent of taxpayer dollars. Planned Parenthood’s organization-wide abuse of the law disqualifies it from being a legitimate women’s health care provider, particularly as there are over 13,000 other comprehensive health care clinics the funds could be redirected to.

These health care clinics are far more effective at serving low-income women than Planned Parenthood. As the statistics prove out: “[I]n one year, Planned Parenthood provides breast exams to just under 0.8% of the reproductive-age women in the United States.” And, from 2011-2014: “Planned Parenthood dropped the number of Pap tests provided by roughly 100,000 a year. In fiscal year 2013-2014, more than 200,000 less women received a Pap test at Planned Parenthood.”

Still, as Sen. Cruz pointed out, President Obama and pro-abortion politicians are willing to “crawl over broken glass with a knife between their teeth” to fund the abortion giant anyway.

This article points out the difference in services for women at the over 13,000 health care clinics compared to Planned Parenthood:

These CHCs, along with other federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) have over 13,500 locations nationwide (compared to Planned Parenthood’s 665). They serve eight times the number of people Planned Parenthood sees, at over 21 million a year, compared to PP’s 2.7 million.

The CHCs have stellar records on how many low-income women receive cancer screenings and breast exams (85.2 and 74.5 percent) – rivaling the national average for women of any income bracket (73.1 and 81.2 percent). Planned Parenthood, not so much. Their record is dismal, and the numbers show it: somewhere between 17 and 32 percent of their patients receive similar screenings. Add this to the fact that 62 percent of “uninsured women received recommended mammography screening” at CHCs, and 0 percent received them at Planned Parenthood because – as a nationwide Live Action investigation demonstrated – PP doesn’t even offer this service.

In the first moments of his speech, Cruz referenced the “volcanic” frustration of the American people. As he last week in Politico, Cruz attributes much of the frustration to politicians who promise they will advance a conservative cause and yet, when the time comes to actually put up a fight, they surrender, again and again.

He explained:

Now you turn to Planned Parenthood. Barack Obama – this will surprise no one – says, “Fund 100% of Planned Parenthood, with taxpayer money.” Mind you, Planned Parenthood is a private organization; it’s not even part of the government. But it happens to be politically favored by President Obama and the Democrats. Planned Parenthood is also the subject of multiple criminal investigations for being caught on tape apparently carrying out a pattern of ongoing felonies.

In ordinary times, the proposition that we should not be sending your and my federal taxpayer money to fund a private organization under multiple criminal investigations, that ought to be a 100 to nothing vote. But I mentioned before, Barack Obama is absolutely committed to his partisan objectives; he is like the Terminator; he never stops; he never gives up. He moves forward and forward and forward.

So what does he say? “If you don’t fund this one private organization that’s not part of the government, that’s under multiple criminal investigations, I, Barack Obama, will veto funding for the entire federal government and shut it down.” And what does Republican leadership say? Well, it will surprise no one. Republican leadership says, “We surrender. We will fund Planned Parenthood.”

Sen. Cruz has promised that, if he is elected president, he will send the Department of Justice into Planned Parenthood to investigate its rampant violation of the law.