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PHOTOS: Young Children Defiantly “Marked-Up” the Graham-Cassidy Bill at Today’s Health Care Speakout

For Immediate Release: Sept. 25, 2017


Unlike Senate Republican Leadership, the Children Present Actually “Marked-Up” the Bill

New Version of Graham-Cassidy Allows States To Deny Women Birth Control Coverage

WASHINGTON DC - Today, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Ben Cardin, women, and their young children joined Planned Parenthood and MomsRising to tell their Planned Parenthood stories and underscore the many ways Graham-Cassidy-Heller would hurt families.

The young children participated in a “children’s markup” of the bill to demonstrate the lack of process around a bill that could leave millions of women and children without the health care they need. Even children as young as two are giving the health care proposal more serious consideration than the all-male Senate Republican Leadership who crafted this bill behind closed doors.

The New Graham-Cassidy-Heller Proposal Hurts Families by…

  • Permitting plans to not cover birth control, at all, cutting off access to critical care for women;

  • Allowing states to waive pediatric care. Under Graham-Cassidy-Heller, states could cut off millions of kids from doctor’s visits, eyeglasses, dentistry, and other care that is necessary to make sure parents can raise their children in healthy environments;

  • Making pregnancy a pre-existing condition with a steep price for new and expecting moms (around about $17,320 by some estimates);

  • Blocking access to preventive reproductive health care, like birth control and STD screenings, at Planned Parenthood health centers;

  • Forcing new moms back to work after 60 days, even if the mom or her baby needs additional time for medical needs;

  • Gutting Medicaid, which has been a lifeline for millions of moms and children.

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Planned Parenthood Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Action Fund engages in educational and electoral activity, including voter education, grassroots organizing, and legislative advocacy.