Today, New Hampshire women got a double dose of good news. The first: The state legislature rejected a defunding bill (216-142) that would have attempted to block women from getting basic preventive services at Planned Parenthood health centers in New Hampshire.
The second: That bill was rejected with bipartisan support. In fact, 76 Republican representatives helped defeat it.
Defeating a Dangerous Bill
More than 14,000 New Hampshire men, women and young people rely on Planned Parenthood health centers in New Hampshire for high-quality, affordable health care — including affordable birth control, cancer screenings, and HIV testing. With 33 percent of Planned Parenthood health centers providing care in rural or medically underserved areas statewide, defunding Planned Parenthood could have left many people without their essential source of primary and preventive health care.
What’s the takeaway?
Reproductive Health Care is Not a Partisan Issue.
Today we saw our elected leaders from both parties stand up for New Hampshire women and families, making clear that access to reproductive health care is not a partisan issue.
It points to what we already knew: Whereas some may believe Republicans don’t support family planning and safe, legal abortion, that isn’t the reality here in the Granite State. Supportive Republicans are working every day in New Hampshire and states across the country to make sure that their voices are heard.
Sign On to Support Family Planning!
Planned Parenthood has been a trusted source of high-quality, compassionate and affordable health care in New Hampshire for 50 years — and that’s not going to change, no matter what our opponents throw at us.
Working in tandem with a bipartisan majority of legislators, we are well-positioned to defeat additional legislative attacks and keep moving forward — not backward, on women’s health.
What’s more, it’s been proven that investments in women's health services provide women with more control over their health and their own family planning. So, I’m urging our elected officials to continue to support investments like family planning and the full range of birth control, which have helped bring New Hampshire’s unintended pregnancy rates to the lowest in the nation.
I’m also urging YOU to sign Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund’s petition to the New Hampshire state legislature!
Jennifer Frizzell is the Vice President of the Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund
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