Joni Ernst started off on wrong foot

To the editor:

Sen. Joni Ernst has started off on the wrong foot as our new senator.

During the campaign she trumpeted the fact that she was in favor of birth control for women. Her first step after election was to introduce a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Is one to assume, then, that she is in favor of birth control, but just not for poor women?

The senator knows full well that Planned Parenthood's federal funding supports women's health care: annual examinations, Pap tests, breast exams and contraception. Lifesaving, life-enhancing medical care.

She is playing the worst kind of politics by trying to confuse Planned Parenthood's contraceptive program, which is federally funded, with its abortion services which are distinct and, by law, separate from any government funding.

Her campaign rhetoric was just that - statements that sounded good on the surface, but which the senator apparently had no intention of following.

Perhaps the senator forgot her words and needs to be reminded.

Frances R. Hansen

Cedar Rapids