Defunding Planned Parenthood Would Really Screw Paul Ryans District
These community health centers receive lots of money through Medicaid--They, too have an uncertain future. Paul Ryan just does not care!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-paul-ryan_us_58b056bde4b0780bac289fd4?utm_content=buffer5721a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
02/24/2017 01:55 pm ET
‘Defunding’ Planned Parenthood Would Really Screw Paul Ryan’s District
“There’s literally nowhere else to go for family planning,” said one of his constituents.
By Laura Bassett
WASHINGTON― If House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) succeeds in his plan to “defund” Planned Parenthood while repealing the Affordable Care Act, his own district will be left unable to meet women’s health care needs.
Ryan and Republicans in Congress are aiming to pass legislation that blocks Medicaid recipients from choosing Planned Parenthood for health care and family planning services, including birth control, cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection testing, because some of the provider’s clinics offer abortion.
For many low-income women in rural areas, including Ryan’s district, Planned Parenthood is currently their only option for family planning or women’s health. In Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood runs 21 health centers. It serves about 60,000 patients a year, roughly 50,000 of whom are Medicaid eligible. Taking away the clinics’ ability to serve those on Medicaid “would significantly reduce our ability to provide care to a huge chunk of our patients, which could lead to clinic closures,” said Nicole Safar, Planned Parenthood Wisconsin’s director of government relations.
Ryan says federally qualified community health centers outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics and therefore can absorb all of the patients. “They’re in virtually every community providing the same kinds of services,” he said at a recent town hall. But that’s not even true in his own district, where 6,000 women rely on Planned Parenthood for health care, according to the family planning provider. In Racine and Walworth counties, where nearly half of Ryan’s constituents live, there are two Planned Parenthood health centers and zero federally qualified community health centers offering family planning services.
“There’s literally nowhere else to go for family planning,” said Sophie Schaut, a 22-year-old college student in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Schaut went to her local Planned Parenthood clinic for an intrauterine device when she was 20, and the clinic told her to pay whatever she could afford for the service. ...........................................
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