GOP-Led House Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood, Furthers the War on Women

 

In an unconscionable move to gain political points, the House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday that seeks to destroy the health of low income men and women. The Defund Planned Parenthood Act would strip the organization of all federal funding for one year. Supporters of the Act say that those funds will be directed to clinics that don't offer abortions. The vote was 241-187, predictably along party lines. 

 

75% of the federal funding Planned Parenthood receives comes in the form of Medicaid. The rest comes from Title X, a program dedicated to family planning services. Both of these programs are for low-income Americans. In defunding them, the federal government is effectively leaving poor women out in the cold. And since GOP lawmakers are somehow not communicating this part, it's important to note that, per federal law, none of the government's funds have ever been used to pay for abortions at Planned Parenthood.

 

Women and men all over the United States, particularly those of low income, depend on Planned Parenthood. The organization makes up 10% of federally funded safety-net health centers that provide family planning services. Nearly four in ten American women who went to safety-net clinics for contraceptive care received services from Planned Parenthood. 52% of all Planned Parenthood patient visits in 2013 "were made by people enrolled in Medicaid." Half of the organization's clinics are in rural or medically-underserved areas, meaning that it's often the case that Planned Parenthood is the only option for people wanting to prevent pregnancy, test for STDs, or screen for cancer.

 

If we defund Planned Parenthood, countless people will be without basic reproductive health services. The number of undiagnosed STDs, including HIV, will go up. The number of people with untreated cancer will go up. The number of unplanned pregnancies will go up. The number of abortions will go up. Poor people, people of color, and women in particular will all pay the price first. Then the rest of the nation will pay the price when we have more children who need support from the government, when we have more citizens unable to work because of their illnesses.

 

All of this so the GOP can grandstand about some deceptively edited videos. So politicians can gain points from their voting base. So people who are in power and who know better can fool their constituents into thinking they are on their side, when really they are screwing over a lot of Americans.