Letter to The Hon. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives - Urges Republicans to Stop Trying to Defund Planned Parenthood

Letter

Dear Speaker Ryan:
As we begin this new Congress, we are outraged at your promise to defund Planned Parenthood as Republicans rush to rip apart the health care system, but we are not surprised. We have seen this before. In fact, since 2007 when Vice President-elect Pence first waged the battle to defund our nation's largest provider of women's health care, we have seen 16 attempts and reached the brink of shutdown, led by extreme, right-wing Republicans to undermine and end women's access to care at clinics across the country. Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood would make America sick again by denying women access to vital, affordable health care services.

Your decision to continue down this harmful, partisan path this year will put the wellbeing and lives of women nationwide at risk--and we urge you to put those patients' needs ahead of scoring political points.

An overwhelming share of Americans--69 percent of voters including 56 percent of Republicans--support Planned Parenthood and oppose shutting down the federal government over its funding. One in five women uses Planned Parenthood as her primary means of health care. In fact, Planned Parenthood serves 2.5 million patients in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, sixty percent of whom are women and families who are Medicaid beneficiaries. In one-fifth of the counties in which they are located, Planned Parenthood sites are the sole safety-net family planning center. Doubling down on repeal and defunding Planned Parenthood ensures that women across the country must bear twice the burden.

Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood would harm communities who can least afford it, ultimately increasing health care costs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) when scoring previous Republican proposals to defund Planned Parenthood made clear that the people most likely to experience reduced access to care would likely reside in areas without access to other health care clinics or medical practitioners who serve low-income populations. CBO even estimated that the House's extreme right-wing bill to fully defund Planned Parenthood would cost taxpayers over $130 million because 45 percent of all births are paid for by Medicaid.

As you know, President-elect Trump praised Planned Parenthood on the campaign trail and affirmed that it has done "very good work for millions of women." We urge you to reconsider putting partisan political fights ahead of women's access to health care.   The women and men who rely on Planned Parenthood are Republicans and Democrats alike--and they did not vote for an extreme political agenda that undermines their access to quality, affordable health care at providers they trust. We urge you to stop the attack on Planned Parenthood immediately.

Sincerely,

United States Senator Patty Murray  
                                                      
United States Senator Ron Wyden

United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

United States Senator Tammy Baldwin

United States Senator Michael F. Bennet

United States Senator Richard Blumenthal

United States Senator Cory Booker

United States Senator Sherrod Brown

United States Senator Maria Cantwell 
     
United States Senator Thomas R. Carper

United States Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.

United States Senator Christopher A. Coons

United States Senator Tammy Duckworth     
                   
United States Senator Richard J. Durbin

United States Senator Dianne Feinstein    
                                                
United States Senator Al Franken     
       
United States Senator Margaret W. Hassan 
                      
United States Senator Martin Heinrich

United States Senator Mazie K. Hirono

United States Senator Tim Kaine

United States Senator Claire McCaskill

United States Senator Robert Menendez

United States Senator Christopher Murphy

United States Senator Bernard Sanders

United States Senator Jeanne Shaheen

United States Senator Tom Udall

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren

United States Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

United States Senator Chris Van Hollen

United States Senator Catherine Cortez

United States Senator Bill Nelson

United States Senator Gary Peters

Source