Too many women and families cannot afford the health care they need and deserve. Prices are rising even as the economy continues to struggle, and women continue to earn less than men. To make matters works, new House leadership and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) are aggressively pushing a dangerous agenda to take health care away from women.
Last week, House leaders launched the most devastating legislative assault on women’s health care in American history. They voted to eliminate the national family planning program (known as Title X), and to de-fund Planned Parenthood by cutting off the federal funds it receives to provide affordable cancer screenings, birth control, HIV testing and counseling, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment.
Simply put, their legislative attack will cut off health care to millions of women who need it the most across the country, including thousands here. In Snohomish County, Planned Parenthood is the only provider of this vital health care at its health centers located in Everett, Lynnwood and Marysville.
Under the guise of deficit reduction, these House leaders, who share an extreme agenda, are aggressively maneuvering to end this popular and effective program that does so much to prevent unintended pregnancy and provide essential health care. If they succeed, millions of women across the country will lose access to basic primary and preventive health care, such as lifesaving cancer screenings, contraception, HIV testing and counseling, and annual exams. Sixty percent of the women who are cared for by Planned Parenthood and similar health centers report that these centers are their only source of health care. Title X has been serving low income women for more than 40 years. It was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970.
Gutting this program means that more women will experience unintended pregnancies, discover too late that they have cancer, or become infertile because of an asymptomatic STI. The results of not receiving this care will be deeply felt by individuals, families and communities.
Rep. Pence and the new congressional leadership are steadfast in wanting to defund Planned Parenthood, because we also provide women with abortion care when they need it. Let me say this: 95 percent of the services we provide at Planned Parenthood are preventive. We do more to prevent the need for abortion than any other single organization working in the United States. Every year, Planned Parenthood doctors and nurses carry out nearly 1 million lifesaving screenings for cervical cancer and 830,000 breast exams. They also provide contraception to nearly 2.5 million patients and nearly 4 million tests and treatments for STIs, including HIV.
As for fiscal discipline and deficit reduction, family planning programs like Title X save money. For every public dollar invested in family planning, taxpayers save nearly $4. Yet, in their ideological zeal to attack women’s health, the House leadership doesn’t seem to care.
The House leadership is clearly out of touch with the needs and wishes of the American people, especially those of women. These extreme proposals are bad policy, bad politics and bad for the health of our women. That’s why we urge Congress to reject this dangerous assault on women’s health.
Christine Charbonneau is CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest.
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