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Despite the fact that the landmark reproductive rights Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, occurred more than 40 years ago, stigma surrounding abortion stories is still disturbingly strong. Worse, considering Donald Trump's determination to appoint anti-choice judges and his proclamation last spring that if abortions are banned, women seeking them should be punished (he walked back from that claim), abortion stigma could be given even more room to thrive under a Trump presidency. This is exactly why it's crucial for concerned women to join forces and stay loud about the realities of abortion and taking care of our reproductive health.

Just two weeks ago, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that the GOP plans to defund Planned Parenthood under a Trump presidency. While the vast majority of services provided by Planned Parenthood are not related to providing abortions (only 3 percent, in fact, is devoted to abortion services, according to its website) and no federal funding goes to abortion services, there's a larger problem with a mistaken perception of the organization. " Planned Parenthood has become a proxy battle for a much bigger, decades-long war over legal abortion," as Vox's Emily Crockett wrote.

Even before this most recent attack on Planned Parenthood, though, more reproductive rights advocates were realizing that so much of the misinformation and misperceptions about abortions stemmed from the silence surrounding women's experiences. That inspired Amelia Bonow and Lindy West to co-found the website turned movement known as Shout Your Abortion.

"'How did we never talk about this when we've been friends for 5 years?' It made it very clear that it was time for people to put their skin in the game."

It was when the House voted to defund Planned Parenthood in September 2015 that the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion was born. In a phone interview with Bustle, Bonow shared how posting a Facebook post about her abortion spun into an international movement, she said.

"It was the day after the House had voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and I spent the whole day crying instead of writing a paper for grad school," Bonow said. "I wrote up my story and decided to post it online. I sent a screenshot to my friend Lindy [West]. Then, she put it on Twitter and that caused it to reach international audiences."

Even before co-founding Shout Your Abortion, Bonow recalled conversations with women where they'd share their stories one by one, slowly realizing how normal abortion was.

"If we had already openly broached this and dismantled the widespread stigma that accuses women of murder for abortion, we wouldn't be seeing legislation that's so profoundly out of touch with people's lives."

"I kept having these conversations with women in my life where we were talking about what was going down, and we were horrified. Often, I would bring up my abortion and they would be like, 'I had one, too!'" she said. "Then we'd be like, 'How did we never talk about this when we've been friends for 5 years?' It made it very clear that it was time for people to put their skin in the game."

There have even been formerly anti-choice people who have been touched by the site, according to Bonow. She shared that a woman from a small town in Texas wrote to Shout Your Abortion's website a few months ago, revealing she was "from a religious family" and "just could never understand what would make someone feel that they had to do that." According to Bonow, the woman wrote that, "Now I'm pregnant, and because of circumstances with the man, I know I have to have an abortion. I never would have felt like I could make this decision if I wasn't given the opportunities to read these stories and realize that abortion isn't something that 'only bad people do."

"We really believe that people need to be able to engage with this issue however they want."

It's stories like those that convince Bonow that more women will need to stay loud and come forward with their abortion stories after Trump is sworn in as president. While it might feel easy for women concerned about protecting reproductive rights to give into despair under a Trump presidency, Bonow emphasized, that now, more than ever, we need to stay loud.

"With abortion, it's pretty easy to see that we're going to have a grave decrease in access. To me, there's never been a clearer, more necessary time to seize this moment and double-down on doing the culture change work," Bonow said.

"The fact that we haven't done that work yet, is part of the root that caused this toxic shame-based culture to thrive. If we had already openly broached this and dismantled the widespread stigma that accuses women of murder for abortion, we wouldn't be seeing legislation that's so profoundly out of touch with people's lives."

In the face of a Trump presidency, Shout Your Abortion's latest efforts are going beyond getting more women to talk about their abortions. The group has developed a set of tools to encourage people to host their own educational events with pro-choice films and create their own book clubs to reduce abortion stigma. The group is also organizing a reproductive justice teach-in in Chicago during inauguration weekend, as well as an already sold-out fundraising concert on Jan. 20, the night of Trump's inauguration.

Trump's inauguration weekend happens to closely coincide with the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Jan. 22. Bonow and people linked up to Shout Your Abortion are helping organize community events for the 44th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision. "We are doing this thing called #TogetherForAbortion, which is getting people to do abortion-related things in their community," Bonow said. "We really believe that people need to be able to engage with this issue however they want. If you go to #TogetherForAbortion you can sign up to host an event. It can be super small and informal, you can just gather a few friends and go to happy hour and talk about how you feel about reproductive rights under this administration."

During the upcoming administration, Bonow said she hopes that Shout Your Abortion can continue to serve as a haven for expression and grassroots energy. "Once people get started, there's so much energy around people wanting to resist," Bonow said. "We want to help people harness that."

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Why Planned Parenthood Needs You To Start Shouting

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Despite the fact that the landmark reproductive rights Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, occurred more than 40 years ago, stigma surrounding abortion stories is still disturbingly strong.

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In their zeal to destroy Planned Parenthood and eliminate women's access to abortions, Congressional Republicans seek to defund Planned Parenthood.

This strategy will have no impact on federal financing of abortions because Congress has banned such financing since 1976.

If Congress succeeds in destroying Planned Parenthood, researchers have concluded it would likely cause a massive spike in unplanned births and abortions, while also delaying diagnosis of and treatment for cancer, diabetes and hypertension for millions of women and men.

This morally bankrupt strategy imperils a basic lifeline for health care services in many poor communities, because Planned Parenthood has an outstanding track record in providing life-saving health care screenings.

It also imperils many women's access to contraception, even though the overwhelming majority of Americans believe contraception should be legal and readily available.

Moreover, this strategy is blatantly unconstitutional. Congress cannot constitutionally single out one health care provider as ineligible for any federal reimbursement for its services merely because Congress disapproves of the provider also spending non-federal dollars on abortions.

What is Planned Parenthood and how does it get reimbursed for its services?

Planned Parenthood turned 100 in 2016. It is not a federally-funded entity. It is a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation that receives government reimbursements for some health care services. It operates approximately 650 health centers.

Annually, it reaches 2.5 million women and men. Only 3 percent of its health care services are for abortions; the federal government provides no reimbursement for those services.

In 2015, Planned Parenthood received nearly $1.3 billion. Of that money, about 40 percent was from government sources. The other money came from private sources, including individual contributions.

The overwhelming majority of the money Planned Parenthood receives from the federal government is Medicaid reimbursement for services such as pap smears, mammograms, contraceptives and screenings for diabetes and hypertension.

Unlike most private health care providers, Planned Parenthood accepts Medicaid patients and treats them on a timely basis despite a below-cost reimbursement rate.

Planned Parenthood relies on private donations to subsidize the cost of these services and reach millions of poor women and men each year. No other charitable organization now provides or has the capacity to develop similar, high quality services for poor people.

Planned Parenthood also receives some Title X grants to serve as a safety-net family-planning provider for millions of people. In 21 percent of the counties in which Planned Parenthood serves as the safety-net clinic, no other low-cost private or governmental family-planning provider exists in the area.

Put simply, an embargo on any federal money going to Planned Parenthood would cause a dramatic decline in the availability of basic health care for poor women and men, while placing further stress on already overburdened government services.

In poor communities, Planned Parenthood is often the only available health care provider of contraception as well as screenings for diabetes, hypertension and cancer.

We should be thanking Planned Parenthood for its century of providing high quality, inexpensive health care services rather than seeking to destroy it.

Ironically, a Republican Congress that lauds public-private partnerships as the way to deliver high quality services seeks to destroy Planned Parenthood.

By providing below-market priced services that other private health care facilities fail to offer, Planned Parenthood subsidizes the government - rather than the other way around.

Planned Parenthood's abortion services would likely survive a hostile Congress that seeks to stop any federal dollars flowing to them, because these services have long survived without government funding.

The "defund Planned Parenthood" strategy, however, would have catastrophic consequences on the availability of contraceptives and health care screenings at the many Planned Parenthood clinics that do not even provide abortions and rely on Medicaid or Title X dollars to serve low-income women and men.

Ruth Colker is a distinguished professor and Heck-Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law at the Ohio State University. She is the author of 14 books on various aspects of constitutional law and disability rights. Readers may write her at Moritz College of Law, 55 West 12th St., Columbus, Ohio, 43210. This essay is available to Tribune News Service subscribers. Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Tribune or its editors

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(c)2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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CON: Defend it, don't defund it: Planned Parenthood does good work

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In their zeal to destroy Planned Parenthood and eliminate women's access to abortions, Congressional Republicans seek to defund Planned Parenthood. This strategy will have no impact on federal financing of abortions because Congress has banned such financing since 1976.

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NPR: What it will take to accomplish progress in defunding

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NPR: What it will take to accomplish progress in defunding

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If repealing the Affordable Care Act is the Republican Congress' job one, defunding Planned Parenthood is a close second.

In fact, the two priorities might be paired. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Jan. 5 that efforts to defund the organization "would be in our reconciliation bill," referring to a measure Congress has put on a fast track in order to repeal major pieces of the health law.

But just as Republicans are discovering that undoing the health law could be complicated, so too is separating the controversial reproductive health care provider from its federal funding. Efforts to hastily jettison Planned Parenthood from federal ledgers could actually jeopardize GOP efforts to repeal the health law.

One problem is that Planned Parenthood gets its funding from several different government sources. According to the group's most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood affiliates got $553.7 million from federal, state, and local governments, accounting for almost half of its total funding.

According to the organization, about 75 percent of that government support comes from the Medicaid program to pay for direct medical services provided to low-income patients, including contraception, cancer screenings and sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment. The remaining quarter comes from other sources, primarily the Title X federal family planning program. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that the group gets approximately $390 million annually from Medicaid and $60 million from Title X.

None of the funds from either program may be used for abortion, under longstanding federal prohibitions. Only half of the Planned Parenthood affiliates even offer abortion services, the group says. But it is still the largest single provider of the procedure in the nation, and that has made it a target for anti-abortion lawmakers since the 1980s.

In recent years, one of the most ardent foes of the organization has been Vice President-elect Mike Pence. When he was a member of the House of Representatives, he led unsuccessful efforts to defund the program. As governor of Indiana, he was able to accomplish some of his goals. He also vowed to stop federal spending for Planned Parenthood during the campaign last fall.

Yet federal lawmakers have been stymied in these efforts.

One big reason is that taking away Planned Parenthood's access to Medicaid funding would require a change in the federal law that guarantees most Medicaid patients with a choice to use any qualified provider. The Department of Health and Human Services has repeatedly warned states that have tried to evict Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs that they cannot legally do that because such a move would violate that law. And federal courts have consistently blocked states that have tried to end Planned Parenthood's Medicaid funding.

Changing that section of Medicaid law likely would require 60 votes in the Senate to break a filibuster by Democrats. Republicans currently have 52 votes. However, the budget reconciliation bill that is expected to be used to repeal portions of the health law operates under special rules. It cannot be filibustered and needs only 51 votes to pass.

That presents two problems for Republicans.

According to a 2015 Congressional Budget Office analysis, permanently changing the Medicaid law to make Planned Parenthood ineligible would cost more, not less - approximately $130 million over 10 years. That is because, said the Congressional Budget Office, taking away contraceptive access for some women would result in more pregnancies, and "additional births that would result from enacting such a bill would add to federal spending for Medicaid."

That is not just theoretical. In 2013, Texas kicked Planned Parenthood out of its family planning program and gave up its federal funding. The result was fewer women using birth control and more babies being born, according to an analysis published last March in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The second problem is political. While the House under GOP control has been strongly in favor of cutting off Planned Parenthood's access to federal funds, there are a handful of Republican senators who oppose the idea. And a handful - three, to be exact - is all it would take to threaten passage of the health law repeal effort.

"Obviously I'm not happy that the speaker has decided to include the defunding of Planned Parenthood - an extremely controversial issue - in the (budget reconciliation) package," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters earlier this month.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said "she is concerned about defunding Planned Parenthood, as she is a longtime supporter of Planned Parenthood and has opposed broadly defunding the organization."

Collins and Murkowski fought against the inclusion of a one-year defunding of the organization in a 2015 health law repeal bill that President Obama vetoed last January.

Although neither senator has said she would vote against the upcoming budget bill if it includes the Planned Parenthood defunding, they join a growing list of Senate Republicans who in recent days have questioned the idea of repealing major portions of the health law before devising its replacement.

Meanwhile, eliminating Planned Parenthood's access to funding under Title X also would likely be addressed in an appropriations spending bill. The current spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services (and most of the rest of the government) expires April 28.

But rather than simply making Planned Parenthood ineligible, Republicans in the House have proposed doing away with funding for the entire 45-year-old Title X federal family planning program. Instead, they would send the money to the nation's network of community health centers.

Last September, the Trump-Pence campaign released a letter to anti-abortion leaders vowing to defund Planned Parenthood "as long as they continue to perform abortions, and reallocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women."

At a CNN town hall Thursday night, Ryan expanded on that. "We don't want to effectively commit taxpayer money to an organization providing abortions. But we want to make sure that people get their coverage. That's why there's no conflict by making sure these dollars go to federal community health centers."

But that might not work either.

"For health centers, which currently serve about 25 million total patients, to have to absorb an additional 2 million people is totally impossible," says Sara Rosenbaum, a health policy and law professor at George Washington University who looked at the issue in 2015.

In some areas of the country, Planned Parenthood and community health centers may not overlap. Planned Parenthood says that in a fifth of the counties it serves, it is the only provider for low-income women. Asking community health centers to move into new areas, says Rosenbaum, "displays a fundamental misunderstanding of how long it takes a new provider to move into a potentially new community."

Despite the difficulties, the shifts in political control this year leaves Planned Parenthood concerned about its future.

While the organization has weathered funding threats before, "it is very true when you have people like Mike Pence and Paul Ryan who have been laser focused for years [on ending funding], that they will make it a very high priority," says Mary Alice Carter, Planned Parenthood's vice president for communications.

She says the organization is counting on the 2.5 million patients it serves every year to make sure their elected officials know they oppose the defunding effort. Whether that will be enough remains unclear.
Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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That Vow To Defund Planned Parenthood: Easy To Say, Hard To Do

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If repealing the Affordable Care Act is the Republican Congress' job one, defunding Planned Parenthood is a close second. In fact, the two priorities might be paired. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Jan.

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YAHOO NEWS: Effects of Defunding Planned Parenthood

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YAHOO NEWS: Effects of Defunding Planned Parenthood

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Delivering a brutal yet familiar threat to Planned Parenthood on Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan declared that Congress would move to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. "The Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our [repeal] bill," Ryan told reporters during his press conference.

His announcement came a day after a House panel convened by Republican majority leadership made the recommendation that Planned Parenthood be denied federal funding vis-à-vis Medicaid reimbursements and federal family planning programs.

Although Ryan had not yet offered specifics about what a defunding measure would look like, many assume it would take on the same structure as when Republicans in Congress last tried this move during budget proceedings in the fall of 2015 , which almost resulted in a government shutdown. At that time, Republicans proposed that all federal funding for contraception and women's preventive health care services be denied to any health care provider who also provides abortion care.

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, was quick to respond with a statement. "Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people's health, it's unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care," she said. "Two and a half million women, men, and young people come through our doors every year for lifesaving care like cancer screenings, birth control, and STI and STD tests, and they cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years, and we're going to be here for 100 more. Women and men in this country won't let politicians like Paul Ryan and Mike Pence take us back decades."

Richards continued, "It's likely no accident that this attack was launched the day after Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a longtime opponent of Planned Parenthood, held a closed-door meeting with Speaker Ryan and the Republican leadership. Now that their plan is clear, Planned Parenthood, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the one in five women who have come to Planned Parenthood, the entire public health establishment, and the millions of supporters across the country are ready to defend care with everything we've got."

Melanie Israel, a research associate at the conservative public policy think tank the Heritage Foundation and an expert on the anti-abortion movement and public policy, found Ryan's announcement "exciting" and "very encouraging," she tells Yahoo Beauty.

"Of course, we don't have the exact language to look at yet, but operating under the assumption that the language will be the same as last year's bill and thus exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursement while increasing funding for other community health centers, that would be a one-two punch of funding women's health - and for Planned Parenthood," Israel says.

Israel explains that, in her opinion, there is no risk for current Medicaid patients losing access to health care services should Planned Parenthood be eliminated as a Medicaid provider.

"There's where increased funding for other health centers comes in," she says. "Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) outnumber Planned Parenthood 20 to one. ... The argument that Planned Parenthood is the only option for most women just doesn't hold up. Other health centers outnumber them, and now they will get increased funding."

But Planned Parenthood plays a critical role in providing access to basic preventive, well-woman, and family-planning services that many Americans would otherwise lack access to. A done at the time of the last attempt at federal defunding found that in two-thirds of the 491 counties in which they are located, Planned Parenthood centers serve at least half of all women obtaining contraceptive care from 2015 analysis safety-net health providers. It also showed that in one-fifth of the counties in which they are located, Planned Parenthood sites are the sole safety-net family planning center.

Which is why many Planned Parenthood proponents call the argument that there are plenty of alternative providers a hollow one - as increased funding to those centers does nothing to help those who live in an area where no such center exists.

Still, Israel emphasizes that defunding Planned Parenthood may only mean eliminating the organization as a Medicaid provider, but not as a provider of family planning services through Title X, the federally funded family-planning program. A recent study by the Guttmacher Institute found that Planned Parenthood disproportionately serves Title X patients relative to other forms of Title X-funded centers like FQHCs.

"We're not talking about closing Planned Parenthood across the country," Israel says, "but just ending Medicaid reimbursement for them for one year."

But Staci Fox, CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast , asks, " How can anyone ensure that there will be providers to see Medicaid patients when the reimbursement rates do not even cover the costs?" She tells Yahoo Beauty that denying reimbursement for Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood providers means " specifically eliminating Planned Parenthood as a provider choice for preventive health care for 2.5 million Americans - many of whom will have no other place to go for care because other providers either do not exist in their communities or cannot absorb the patient volume."

In March 2016, when Florida lawmakers proposed eliminating Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider in their state, the l ist of FQHCs Republicans offered as evidence of providers ready to absorb those patients included dentists, elementary school health clinics, and podiatrists .

The effects of defunding Planned Parenthood have been studied on a limited scale in Texas, which eliminated Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider in 2013 and implemented a state program for low-income women's health care, the Texas Women's Health Program. And already, research on the fallout, including a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has shown that the use of contraception has decreased , while unintended pregnancies have increased in the state .

It's why so many women's health care experts and advocates are especially troubled by Ryan's announcement - and about linking it so specifically to the planned Republican repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America , tells Yahoo Beauty that Ryan's statement "is a textbook case of GOP overreach. When the vast majority of Americans voted for Democrats in the Senate and the White House, when even Trump voters have expressed surprise since the election to hear that cutting health care and defunding Planned Parenthood are under consideration, this speaker has no mandate."

Ryan's position "is the height of hypocrisy," Hogue continues. " You can't claim to be for saving Americans money and go after the $1.4 billion in savings for women due to birth control coverage. You can't oppose abortion services and then take away the tools that have helped keep unintended pregnancy at an all time low. Last I checked, Planned Parenthood's approval ratings were far higher than those of Speaker Ryan's , so he best proceed with care."

Further, Israel points to the debunked "sting" videos produced by the anti-choice activist group the Center for Medical Progress as the key reason why such defunding is so necessary.

"The videos released in 2015 were absolutely disturbing," she says. "And for a lot of people across the country, it makes them think, 'Wait a minute - are these my values? Is this the kind of organization I should be sending limited taxpayer dollars to when there are other entities out there that I could be sending them to that are not entangled in this? ... Those videos sent renewed excitement in the pro-life movement to speak out and confidently say, 'Here is another reason why we need to make sure that taxpayer money doesn't go toward abortion services.'"

Because of the Hyde Amendment, passed in 1976, no federal funding of any kind may be used for abortion care , making abortion the only medical procedure to be banned from Medicaid coverage. But, Israel insists, "Money is always flexible - and entangling tax dollars with abortion in any way is not acceptable."

Still, notes Fox, through its myriad health services, " Planned Parenthood does more to prevent abortions than any single organization in this country."

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What Defunding Planned Parenthood Could Mean for Women's Health

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House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday Congress would move to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Here's how that move could affect American women. Proponents of defunding boast of potential increases in other federally funded family programs, while Planned Parenthood advocates say it

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Blog: Essential and Basic Healthcare PP Provides

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Blog: Essential and Basic Healthcare PP Provides

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Update (6/05/17): Funding for these essential health care services is threatened by potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Learn how you can help stop repeal! Planned Parenthood provides essential health care services to 2.7 million women, men, and young people across the country, the large majority of whom have low incomes or live in underserved communities. Recent efforts at the federal and state levels to defund this critical provider would jeopardize access to comprehensive health care for millions of Americans.

Here are the facts on the important role Planned Parenthood plays in meeting the health care needs of underserved communities and the serious consequences that reducing or eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood could have on the communities it serves.

Planned Parenthood is the primary source of health care for many patients

For many individuals, Planned Parenthood is their primary source of care and the provider they most trust with their health care needs. A Guttmacher report found that, among women who receive care from a family planning center like Planned Parenthood, nearly 4 in 10 report that it is their only source of health care.

Consumers rely on Planned Parenthood for a comprehensive range of health care services. This includes preventive health care services (such as well-woman exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, vaccinations, and birth control).

Planned Parenthood provides health care to primarily low-income and underserved communities

In 2013, 78 percent of Planned Parenthood patients had incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $36,375 a year for a family of four. Half of Planned Parenthood patients are covered through Medicaid, which serves low-income individuals and families.

In addition, more than half of Planned Parenthood health centers are in rural or medically underserved areas. These are communities where there are not enough providers to adequately serve the community's needs and where lower-income consumers often struggle to find a health care provider they can afford. In these areas, Planned Parenthood is on the front lines, helping ensure that patients have timely access to care.

Planned Parenthood plays a fundamental role in tackling health disparities

Many Planned Parenthood patients are women of color. In 2013, 22 percent of the patients served by Planned Parenthood were Latino, and 14 percent were African American -two groups that suffer from multiple health disparities related to breast and cervical cancer. For example, Latinas and African American women are much more likely to die from cervical cancer than white women.

Ensuring that women of color have access to the preventive screenings that can detect cancer and other conditions early is critical to reducing these disparities. As a trusted source of preventive care for women of color, Planned Parenthood plays a key role in improving access to this care.

Defunding Planned Parenthood would hinder access to care

Alongside other safety net providers like community health centers, Planned Parenthood is an important partner in providing high-quality care to underserved communities. If Planned Parenthood centers are closed or defunded, there is no guarantee that other health care providers will be able to serve their patients. In many instances, doctors, community health centers, and other clinics simply don't have the capacity to provide care to all the patients currently served by Planned Parenthood. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO, which produces independent analyses of budgetary issues for Congress) has estimated that up to 25 percent of patients served by Planned Parenthood could lose their access to care if the organization lost its federal funding.

When Texas cut Planned Parenthood funding, patient care was affected

At the state level, efforts to reduce or eliminate Planned Parenthood funding tell an even more concerning story about the potential impact of funding cuts. For example, in 2011, Texas cut its family planning budget by two-thirds and banned Planned Parenthood from participating in the state's Women's Health Program. Before this, Planned Parenthood served nearly 50 percent of the program's patients. By 2013, the number of women who received care through the Women's Health Program had dropped by more than 50 percent.

The facts are clear: Attacks on Planned Parenthood harm access to comprehensive care for many women, men, and young adults, especially those living in underserved communities. Congress should stop its politically motivated attacks on Planned Parenthood and instead work to protect, expand, and improve the programs that keep women and their families healthy.

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Four Reasons Planned Parenthood Is an Essential Health Care Provider

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Planned Parenthood provides essential health care services to 2.7 million women, men, and young people across the country, the large majority of whom have low incomes or live in underserved communities. Recent efforts at the federal and state levels to defund this critical provider would jeopardize access to comprehensive health care for millions of Americans.

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Academic Source: What Do Publicly Funded Family Planning Services Provide?

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Academic Source: What Do Publicly Funded Family Planning Services Provide?

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Op-Ed: How to Protect Planned Parenthood

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Op-Ed: How to Protect Planned Parenthood

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Opponents of Planned Parenthood in recent years have cut funding to the organization that goes through the Title X Family Planning Program, which provides federal money for services like contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections and cancer screenings. (Like all federal programs, it is largely barred from paying for abortions.) State and local governments distribute that money to health care providers, and at least 14 states took actions to cut the share they direct to Planned Parenthood.

This month, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule that could stop states from doing this. The rule would make clear that state governments must apportion Title X funds based on a provider's ability to perform family planning services effectively - not on other factors like whether a provider also offers abortions.

State efforts to strip Planned Parenthood of Title X funds have hurt low-income residents, who are likely to depend on Planned Parenthood clinics for free or low-cost health services. In New Hampshire, for instance, the state's Executive Council voted in 2011 not to renew Planned Parenthood's contract under Title X, leaving parts of the state with no federally funded family planning services until the Department of Health and Human Services stepped in with an emergency grant three months later. Fortunately, the council voted in June to restore funding.

In 2011, Texas cut its state family planning budget and changed the way it allocated Title X funds to significantly reduce grants to Planned Parenthood and other "abortion-affiliated providers." More than 75 clinics, a third operated by Planned Parenthood, closed as a result.

Title X also provides funding to reduce maternal mortality, which remains stubbornly high across the country. In Texas, the maternal mortality ratio - maternal deaths per 100,000 live births - doubled between 2000 and 2014.

Some state lawmakers have argued that community health centers can easily provide the same family planning services that Planned Parenthood offers. But a study published this year found that providers focused on reproductive health care, like Planned Parenthood, offered a wider range of family planning services and higher quality care than centers without an emphasis on reproductive health.

Planned Parenthood also serves an enormous number of patients; though it operates only 10 percent of all health centers that receive Title X funds, it treats about a third of all patients receiving federally funded family planning services nationwide.

The proposed Health and Human Services rule will be open for public comment for 30 days, after which the department will decide whether to issue a final version. If the rule takes effect, it will benefit people all over the country who need reliable reproductive health care.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: A Way to Protect Planned Parenthood Services. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Opinion | A Way to Protect Planned Parenthood Services

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Opponents of Planned Parenthood in recent years have cut funding to the organization that goes through the Title X Family Planning Program, which provides federal money for services like contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections and cancer screenings. (Like all federal programs, it is largely barred from paying for abortions.)

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Suggests congress not only has primitive ideas, but that Fiorina is the true opposition rather than Planned Parenthood.

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We are seven women who serve as Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has become ground zero in the Republican fight to defund Planned Parenthood.

Last week, we joined all of our other Democratic colleagues on the committee warning our chairman, Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that the relentless attack on Planned Parenthood by the conservative House Freedom Caucus was in fact "part of a broader power struggle to unseat House Speaker John Boehner, led by an extreme wing of the Republican Party that is using this issue to force a government shutdown unless the Speaker bows to their demands."

Our warning proved prescient.

More than half of the founding members of this Freedom Caucus are also on our committee. On Tuesday, they will continue their assault on Planned Parenthood, which is one of our nation's leading providers of high-quality women's health care.

They will make lots of arguments to justify their extreme actions, but there is one simple reason we are at this point: Republicans want to outlaw a woman's right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy.

It is a truth we all know, and yet it somehow stays just below the surface of the public debate. It's time we are honest about it.

Republicans say this is all about deceptive videos first released in July, made surreptitiously by an anti-abortion group and purporting to show violations of our laws on fetal tissue research -- laws that were adopted with strong bipartisan support based on the work of President Reagan's 1988 blue-ribbon panel. But when the facts that contradict their narrative come to light, it never seems to matter.

When we learned, for example, that the videos released by David Daleiden and his Center for Medical Progress had dozens of unexplained splices and edits cutting out phrases like " we're not looking to make money from this," that didn't matter.

When we learned that 1% of Planned Parenthood centers had any involvement in fetal tissue donation, that didn't matter.

When we learned that some Planned Parenthood centers involved in tissue donation took the extra precaution of accepting no reimbursement for their costs, far beyond what is even required by federal law, that didn't matter.

When we learned that Planned Parenthood centers that lawfully accepted reimbursement recouped only their costs and repeatedly refused offers from anti-abortion extremists to entrap them into accepting far larger amounts ( even, in one case, more than 10 times more), Republicans still insisted the organization was trying to profit from these donations.

The righteously indignant rhetoric we've heard for weeks about Planned Parenthood trafficking in baby parts has a fundamental flaw: It isn't true, and it's never been true. But it makes for a great sound bite.

The reason the facts don't matter is that this whole episode is not about tissue donation or the Hyde Amendment governing federal funds for abortion or Medicaid reimbursements for physicians. It is about an ideological opposition to a woman's right to choose by politicians who think they have a right to make women's most personal, sensitive health care decisions for them.

Republicans have admitted at recent hearings that "(t)he issue is not whether there's been a crime committed or not," and one of our Senate colleagues recently noted, "(m)y focus is to try to deal with the life issue. Defunding Planned Parenthood is just a sideshow for the real event."

The core issue is that Republican members of Congress now almost universally oppose abortion. An increasing number, like Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, support banning abortion with no exemptions -- not even in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the woman is threatened.

The majority of Americans disagree with these extreme views. Public opinion notwithstanding, the true reason for these politicians' baseless attack on Planned Parenthood is their desire to take away a woman's constitutional right to abortion.

Some of us are old enough to remember a time when abortion was illegal in much of America. We remember the thousands of women who died from unsafe abortions. We remember a society where male politicians had the authority to dictate a woman's most personal and sensitive reproductive health care decisions. We remember a time when women made up less than 5% of the Congress and 0% of the Supreme Court.

We still have a long way to go to achieve equal rights for women -- from equal pay for equal work, to paid family and medical leave, to full access for all women to contraceptive services. But we are here to say that on all of these issues, and on women's health in particular, we refuse to go backward.

We need to recognize this fight for what it is. It is about banning a woman's right to choose, and it is being driven by politicians who think they have the right to dictate to women about their most private health care decisions. We will do everything we can to stop this.

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don't defund planned parenthood (opinion) - cnn

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Don't defund Planned Parenthood (Opinion) - CNN

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We are seven women who serve as Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has become ground zero in the Republican fight to defund Planned Parenthood.

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Displays people who advocate for the birth of the child, but support ideas that lower quality of life (Pro-Life vs. Pro-Birth)

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Supporters Gather at Utah Court House After Barring of Federal Funding Cuts to PP

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Supporters Gather at Utah Court House After Barring of Federal Funding Cuts to PP

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"If Men could get pregnant, birth control and abortion would be safe & affordable, and a holy sacrament

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Quote from PP President, Cecile Richards

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Quote from PP President, Cecile Richards

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Protester Attempting to Speak to a Patient

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Protester Attempting to Speak to a Patient

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Many are harassed by protesters upon attempting to enter the facility. While this protester seems to only have a pamphlet, many hold horrific posters featuring gory, ripped apart infants in order to scare and shock potential patients, As seen here, the facility offers volunteers to accompany patients in to deflect these protesters.

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Movement: "I Stand With Planned Parenthood"

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Movement: "I Stand With Planned Parenthood"

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Polls Show: Americans Stand With Planned Parenthood

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Planned Parenthood has a 100-year history of caring for Americans' reproductive health. Every year, 2.5 million patients depend on Planned Parenthood. In fact, an estimated 1 in 5 women have relied on Planned Parenthood for reproductive health care in their lifetime.

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Case Study of Public Funding of Reproductive Health Organizations

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Case Study of Public Funding of Reproductive Health Organizations

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Services the Establishment Provides - Graph

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Services the Establishment Provides - Graph

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How Planned Parenthood Receives Government Funding

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How Planned Parenthood Receives Government Funding

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Supporters Rally in Utah to Protest Government's Defunding Efforts

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Supporters Rally in Utah to Protest Government's Defunding Efforts

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Daily Show interview with Current Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards

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Daily Show interview with Current Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards

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The Daily Show - Cecile Richards Extended Interview

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Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, explains which health services are reimbursed by the government and discusses Paul Ryan's vow to defund the organization. Watch full episodes of The Daily Show now -- no login required: http://www.cc.com/shows/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah/full-episodes The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs weeknights at 11/10c on Comedy Central.

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Explains how the establishment began as well as the challenges it has faced in staying in business. The video well summarizes its lasting impacts.

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The History Of 100 Years Of Women's Health Care At Planned Parenthood

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The History Of 100 Years Of Women's Health Care At Planned Parenthood - This is the little-known history behind America's most famous health care provider - thanks to Lena Dunham, Mindy Kaling, Amy Schumer, Tessa Thompson, Meryl Streep, and more --- Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews Find us on Snapchat Discover: http://bit.ly/1sdgpnf http://www.youtube.com/nowthismedia

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Paul Ryan declares intent to defund Planned Parenthood

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Paul Ryan declares intent to defund Planned Parenthood

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Briefly outlines Paul Ryan's intent to dismantle the establishment

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Paul Ryan: GOP will defund Planned Parenthood

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House Speaker Paul Ryan says the GOP's budget bill defunding Obamacare could include language to block Planned Parenthood's federal funds. Learn more about this story at www.newsy.com/66124/ Find more videos like this at www.newsy.com Follow Newsy on Facebook: www.facebook.com/newsyvideos Follow Newsy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/newsyvideos