Attacks on Access to Care at Planned Parenthood

For years, backward politicians in Congress and statehouses across the country have attacked Planned Parenthood’s patients’ access to care. We’ve got news for them: Planned Parenthood’s health centers provide high-quality, affordable reproductive health care, including abortion, to 2.4 million people across the country — and Planned Parenthood is not backing down.

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Main Line of Attack: “Defunding” Planned Parenthood

When politicians talk about “defunding” Planned Parenthood, they really mean blocking patients who depend on public health care funds from getting their care at Planned Parenthood health centers.

Many of these patients are people with low incomes who don’t have health insurance, or who rely on public health care funding like Medicaid. People on this type of assistance can’t use federal funding for abortion because of an unfair federal policy called the Hyde Amendment (which has very narrow exceptions). So, attempts to block these patients from getting care at Planned Parenthood only keeps them from getting preventive services, like birth control and lifesaving cancer and STD screenings.
 

“Defund” Attacks: From 2007 to Today

Anti-abortion politicians have been on a years-long crusade against Planned Parenthood. Mike Pence introduced the first federal legislation to “defund” Planned Parenthood in 2007. Women’s health champions beat it back, but it was just one of many such attacks.

More recently, in 2015 anti-abortion extremists released deceptively edited videos that made false claims about Planned Parenthood health centers. The videos were completely debunked, but anti-abortion members of Congress, state legislators, and presidential candidates used the faked videos to push their anti-Planned Parenthood agenda. Thankfully, President Barack Obama blocked the “defund” legislation. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood was cleared of all wrongdoing and sued the video attack perpetrators. But that hasn’t stopped extreme politicians from going after Planned Parenthood patients, particularly at the state level.
 

The Impact of “Defunding” Attacks

Although the claims politicians and extremists make against Planned Parenthood are false, the consequences are very real when politicians block people’s access to health care. Just take Texas, for instance:

• “Defunding” Planned Parenthood led to a 27% increase in births among women on Medicaid who previously had access to injectable contraception.

• Texas’ publicly funded family planning programs served 46% fewer patients.

• More than half of all Texas women reported at least one barrier to reproductive health care; Spanish-speaking women from Mexico were more likely to report three or more barriers.
   

Learn More & Take Action

So what’s the good news? Planned Parenthood’s supporters are standing up and fighting back! We’re lobbying public officials and working to elect reproductive health champions.

Here’s more on politicians’ deceptive attempts to block access to reproductive health care at Planned Parenthood, and on how to get involved in defending patients’ access to care:

• Stand With Planned Parenthood
  There are tons of ways to defend Planned Parenthood and the lifesaving, life-changing services its health centers provide. Take action now!

• “Defunding”: Who’s Behind It and What It Really Means
  Politicians who want to restrict access to abortion are the biggest pushers of “defunding” Planned Parenthood. This blog offers the 411 on defunding’s dire consequences.

• Faked Videos, Real Consequences
  Anti-women’s health extremists who call themselves the Center for Medical Progress started the 2015 video smear attack. Read these must-know facts about the perpetrators.

• Don’t Believe Politicians Who Say the Services Planned Parenthood Provides Will Be Available Elsewhere
  Nothing could be further from the truth, and the negative consequences for Planned Parenthood’s patients are very real. Learn the true cost of “defunding” Planned Parenthood.

• Decades of Attacks
  The fanatical crusade against Planned Parenthood isn’t new — it is refried and rehashed political theater. Check out the decades of doctored videos, failed entrapments, and false accusations.