UPDATED: Nebraska moves one step closer to attacking Title X patients

UPDATED 3/29/2018: This is far from routine legislation — this is an attack on women.

Nebraska just advanced a spending bill that would effectively end state funding for Title X, the federal program that 93 percent of Planned Parenthood patients in the state rely on.

The budget — spearheaded by Nebraska’s notoriously anti-women governor, Pete Ricketts (R) — contains a dangerous measure that eliminates funding to Planned Parenthood, simply because Planned Parenthood provides safe, legal abortion.

As a result, 8,000 patients in Nebraska would lose the right to choose Planned Parenthood for Title X services. This means no more birth control, cancer screenings, or STI testing and treatment. In 2016 alone, Planned Parenthood health centers provided care to nearly one-third of all Title X patients in the state, despite making up less than five percent of all Title X providers in Nebraska.

Sound familiar? Nebraska’s new budget is eerily familiar to the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine Title X. In fact, Gov. Ricketts and Mike Pence are close allies.

Ricketts (left) at a fundraiser with Vice President Mike Pence. 

What’s more, the idea that other providers could absorb Planned Parenthood’s patients has been resoundingly dismissed by experts. The American Public Health Association called the idea “ludicrous.” Politicians in some states have even suggested women could go to “alternative” providers like dentists and school nurses instead.

That’s right: dentists and school nurses.

Make no mistake: This is a blatant attack on women and underserved communities. After all, 87 percent of Title X recipients are women, with the majority living at or below the federal poverty line. Additionally, due to discriminatory public policy, people of color, young people, and people living in rural areas who already face systemic barriers to accessing health care would be severely hurt.

If this terrible measure get signed into law, then 8,000 of Title X patients in Nebraska would lose basic affordable health care at Planned Parenthood. But Gov. Ricketts would rather block those people from critical care, simply because Planned Parenthood is an abortion provider.