Funding for Planned Parenthood services should continue

By Amy Reasner

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One in every five women in the United States has used Planned Parenthood's services. Look around you - is that your sister? Your best friend? Your daughter?

But on Feb. 18, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to eliminate Title X funding for Planned Parenthood. If the Pence Amendment passes, 3 million women nationally and more than 53,000 women in Iowa alone will lose family planning funding. This number is mind-boggling!

Planned Parenthood is a safety net for a woman to access low-cost or even free birth control, as well as lifesaving tests for cervical and breast cancer, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and basic health care.

I am a board member of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, with health centers here in Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and across Iowa into Nebraska. I've heard stories from our clinicians about women they see every day who thank Planned Parenthood for finding that lump in their breast, or who desperately want to avoid another unintended pregnancy and need someone who doesn't judge them explain how they can do that.

Many of the women visiting Planned Parenthood are struggling to afford their grocery bills and their rent, so cervical and breast cancer screening and birth control are the last things on their mind.

This legislation, if passed, would mean that many of these women - women you know - rather than receiving low-cost birth control from Planned Parenthood, will quit taking the pill and cross their fingers. If your goal is to reduce unintended pregnancy, and therefore reduce the need for abortions, then support Title X funding of Planned Parenthood services.

And don't be fooled by the rhetoric exhorting you to support this legislation if you're opposed to abortion. Taxpayer dollars don't pay for abortion services; the Hyde Amendment passed by Congress in 1976 excluded abortion from health services provided through federal funding to low-income American women.

Since that is the case, there is no other reason to deny women health care from Planned Parenthood - except to punish Planned Parenthood for offering a legal service - a service many hospitals and doctors offer, too, but just don't talk about.

Don't let Congress cut off its nose to spite its face and hurt low-income women in the process. Please contact your legislators and demand, like I did, that the Pence Amendment be defeated!

Amy Reasner of Cedar Rapids is a member of the Planned Parenthood of the Heartland board of directors. Comments:

areasner@lynchdallas.com