Cecile Richards, Governor Tom Wolf, Planned Parenthood Patients from Bucks County, PA Highlight Devastating Impact of 'Defunding' in Pennsylvania

Warminster, PA -  Today, PPFA President Cecile Richards and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf join Planned Parenthood patients, and Bucks County community leaders to highlight the devastating impact Congressional Republicans proposal to block access to care at Planned Parenthood would have in Pennsylvania. Congressional Republicans like Reps. Fitzpatrick, Costello, and Meehan are mounting the biggest attack on women’s health in a generation, and blocking access to care at Planned Parenthood is their top priority. In Pennsylvania, over 90,000 people rely on the 31 Planned Parenthood health centers for care, including cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing and treatment, well woman exams, and safe, legal abortion. Watch LIVE on Facebook

Quote from Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America:

We're here in Bucks County with two of Planned Parenthood's over 90,000 Pennsylvania patients to talk about what is really at stake when politicians talk about blocking access to care at Planned Parenthood. For many, Planned Parenthood is their only health care provider and they would have nowhere else to go.  We've made incredible progress in women's health care. We're at a historic low in teen pregnancy, and a 30-year low in unintended pregnancy -- thanks to better access to family planning and information. We know it works.  And we know what doesn't work: making it harder for women to access that care.

The attacks are coming at every level. New legislation (S.B. 300) at the state level would attempt to block access to care at Planned Parenthood in Pennsylvania by targeting medical reimbursements for services like contraception and cancer screenings to low-income patients.

Quote from The Honorable Tom Wolf, Governor of Pennsylvania:

Attacks on women’s health at both federal and state levels are nothing more than politicians inserting themselves between doctors and their patients. These attacks on women’s reproductive health care and organizations such as Planned Parenthood put women, especially in rural and underserved communities, at risk of having extremely limited access to essential health services. Conversations such as the one today deliver a message to our legislators that they should be focused on fixing our schools, getting people back to work, and solving the opioid and heroin crisis, not making it harder for women to access critical health and wellness services.

For many, Planned Parenthood is their only health care provider. If extreme politicians in Congress succeeds in their attacks on Planned Parenthood, thousands of Fitzpatrick’s own constituents and thousands of Pennsylvanians would lose access to their basic health care. View patient remarks here.

“I’m here today speaking about my experience because if Planned Parenthood wasn’t available to me, I would not have a three year old son today, ”said Shay, a patient from Doylestown, PA. “In Bucks County, there is nowhere else to go for reproductive health care. There are women in this community who wouldn’t be able to have kids, or would have to go through a battle with cancer - if Planned Parenthood wasn’t here.”

“Planned Parenthood, because they are Planned Parenthood, was open and saw me right away. They are experts, and every woman in every situation - no matter who she is or where she lives or what kind of insurance she has - deserves to have access to that,” said Whitney Lingle from Philadelphia, PA.

In Pennsylvania, Planned Parenthood plays an indispensible role in serving family planning patients that rely on the safety net. In Bucks County and four other counties in Pennsylvania Planned Parenthood is the only safety net provider that provides family planning.

In 24% of Pennsylvania counties, Planned Parenthood served the majority of patients receiving publicly funded family planning in 2010.  Although Planned Parenthood health centers comprised 15% of Pennsylvania’s safety net centers that offered family planning care in 2010, they served 38% of patients served by such centers.