Do You Support Access to Affordable Birth Control?

The fight to protect Title X is, for the majority of people, personal. Title X is the nation’s only federal program dedicated to  affordable reproductive health care — from cancer screenings to birth control — to millions of people a year, many of whom don’t even know that they benefit from the program. The Title X program helps providers like Planned Parenthood offer low-cost or free preventive care to those struggling to make ends meet.

On one hand, that makes it hard to talk about Title X: why would people fight for something that they don’t even know is helping them? On the other hand, as soon as people learn just what this program does, they want to know: how can I get involved? How do I best support access to affordable birth control and other care?

Here’s the answer: we have to show up and let Congress know that reproductive health care is popular. Gag rules — like the one the Trump administration is using to dismantle the Title X program — are not. Our politicians have to know that this is an issue that can and will make them or break them.

Across the Country, a Groundswell

In this last year, we’ve seen hundreds of actions — 270 that involved Planned Parenthood and its affiliates alone — to support Title X and access to Planned Parenthood. This past week, supporters turned out to #StandWithPP in cities across the country. Activists crowded Congressional offices, hosted letter-writing parties and held rallies in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia. Many of the activists were young people, including high school and college students rallying on their campuses. 

If you need some #Inspiration, here are some amazing snaps of supporters vowing to #StandWithPP and protect our access to health care:

People across the country are outraged — their health care hangs in the balance, and Republican leaders are preventing Congress from taking action. We need Congress to act now to reverse the Trump administration’s harmful gag rule, and protect birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and more for millions of people.

– Alexis McGill Johnson Acting President, Planned Parenthood

These events come after Senate Republican leaders cancelled a vote last week on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) spending bill in a desperate attempt to block the passage of an amendment to reverse the harmful Title X gag rule. New polling shows that voters in Arizona, Colorado and key swing Congressional districts nationwide oppose the Trump administration’s Title X gag rule, and are less likely to support legislators that don’t act to block it.

On August 19, Planned Parenthood Federation of America announced that the Trump administration had forced Planned Parenthood grantees out of Title X, through an unethical gag rule. The medical community, public health experts, and the general public are against this rule. In addition to the American Medical Association, the gag rule has been opposed by other major medical associations, like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, as well as 110 public health organizations, and public health experts such as former U.S. surgeon general Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, and many others. A group of 19 different medical organizations, mayors, state lawmakers, over 200 Members of Congress, newly elected Democratic governors, and several other governors have opposed this rule as well.