Planned Parenthood battling congressional effort to defund it
Source: Washington Post
Planned Parenthood battling congressional effort to defund it
By Sandhya Somashekhar
@sandhyawp
https://twitter.com/sandhyawp
January 5 at 11:04 AM
Planned Parenthood on Thursday launched a campaign to resist congressional efforts to target the organization, with marches, letter-writing campaigns and other activities planned in dozens of cities over the next three months to demand that lawmakers abandon efforts to undermine a source of health care for 2.5 million Americans.
The campaign coincides with the start of the new Congress, whose Republican leaders have pledged to end federal funding to the 100-year-old group, which receives about $500 million in federal grants and Medicaid reimbursements and is known for providing reproductive health care to women, including abortions. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office later this month, has said he would sign such a bill.
As part of the new campaign, Planned Parenthood aims to show the deep support it has from men and women across the country, including from some who voted for Trump. They are linking their struggle to broader concerns about women’s issues, prompted in part by Republicans’ plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which allowed 55 million women to receive birth control through their health insurance without a co-pay. They also plan to highlight the records of several of Trump’s Cabinet selections and his vice president-elect, who oppose abortion rights and government efforts to widen access to birth control.
If these appointees “had their way, millions of people across the country would be stripped of their access to basic health care,” Kelley Robinson, deputy national organizing director for Planned Parenthood, said in a statement. “We won’t back down, we won’t be silenced, and we will not let these politicians attack our health and rights without a fight.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/01/05/planned-parenthood-launches-campaign-to-fight-congressional-effort-to-defund-it/
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