Planned Parenthood Says It Could Lose Cancer-Screening Funds Under State Budgets

[TexasTowelie]

Five years ago, Cynthia Wilson says, she was uninsured when she discovered lumps in her breast and abdomen. So she made an appointment at Planned Parenthood, where a doctor performed a biopsy and said she had ovarian cancer. From there, Wilson says, Planned Parenthood referred her to get chemotherapy and surgery at Parkland Hospital, through a separate program for people without insurance.

Now cancer-free, Wilson volunteers as a spokesman for Planned Parenthood, trying to convince people that Planned Parenthood clinics actually offer services that aren't abortions, like cancer-screenings. "Up until then," she says of her diagnosis, "all I had heard was just the worst things about Planned Parenthood." Wilson also tells her story in a Change.org petition to save cancer-screenings for poor women.

Planned Parenthood is worried about what will happen to the cancer screening program that Wilson benefited from by the time Texas lawmakers get through with next year's budget. In addition to Wilson's petition, Planned Parenthood recently launched its own site and campaign to save its screenings in Texas.

At issue are two proposed state budgets in the House and Senate. Senator Jane Nelson, the Flower Mound "Citizen of the Year" and the Senate's chief budget-writer, has drafted a budget that would change the way that breast and cervical cancer screenings for poor women are funded. Currently, health clinics in Texas provide breast and cervical cancer screenings to uninsured women based on location, under a federally funded program. Nelson's budget, as we reported, rearranges the funding order, placing non-public clinics like Planned Parenthood as the lowest priority for receiving the federal funds. The point of her budget, Nelson has said, is to keep the cancer-screening funds away from abortion providers. (In case you needed a refresher, taxpayer money doesn't actually go to abortions, but Texas lawmakers like to ignore that point).

Read more: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2015/04/dallas_woman_saved_by_cancer_screenings_insists_planned_parenthood_isnt_abortion_mill.php

[Arkansas Granny]

1. They don't care how many women may die because of their actions

as long as they save those embryos.