Lowey Leads Rally against Defunding Planned Parenthood in Must-pass Government Spending Bill as Fiscal Deadline Looms

Callous defunding tactic jeopardizes access for 19,000 women, men, and teens in the Lower Hudson Valley

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COULD SHUT DOWN IN JUST THREE DAYS

WHITE PLAINS, NY – Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (Westchester/Rockland), the Ranking Member on the House Appropriations Committee, today at Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic’s (PPHP) White Plains health center led a rally with PPHP President & CEO Reina Schiffrin, PPHP Vice President Joan Rosen, teen participant in PPHP's Comprehensive Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention program Louise Olay, local elected officials from Westchester and Rockland, and dozens of supporters against defunding Planned Parenthood in a must-pass government spending bill.

“It is disappointing, but not surprising, that Republicans in Congress would risk a damaging government shutdown rather than support safe, high-quality women’s health care services,” said Lowey. “Planned Parenthood health centers play an irreplaceable role in the U.S. health care system. We simply cannot cut their federal reimbursements and grants, which would jeopardize safe, vital, and effective health care services for millions of Americans, including more than 19,000 women, men, and teens in the Lower Hudson Valley. ”

With only three legislative days remaining before the federal budget deadline on September 30, the Republican Congress is yet again manufacturing a politically-driven, national fiscal crisis by threatening to shut down the federal government for the second time in two years.  As extremists in the House of Representatives advocate shutting down the government unless Planned Parenthood is denied federal funding, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a similar measure. The President has issued a veto threat for such legislation, which would strip vital health services from millions of women, men, and teens, including cancer screenings, birth control, sexually transmitted disease  testing and treatment, well-woman exams, and advice on family planning. 

Defunding Planned Parenthood would jeopardize access for 19,000 women, men, and teens in the Lower Hudson Valley who depend on its services. In 2014 alone, Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic health centers in the Lower Hudson Valley handled 17,300 family planning visits and enabled 11,700 Pregnancy Tests; 2,600 pap tests; 7,250 HIV tests; and 30,000 other STI tests for patients.

Nationally, 2.7 million Americans rely on nearly 700 Planned Parenthood centers around the country for preventive health services each year. Planned Parenthood centers provide family planning counseling and contraception for 2.1 million patients, preventing an estimated 516,000 unintended pregnancies every year; more than 1.1 million pregnancy tests; nearly 400,000 Pap tests; and nearly 500,000 lifesaving breast exams. Preventive care accounts for more than 90 percent of Planned Parenthood health care services.

Sadly, cutting funding to Planned Parenthood would have a disproportionate impact on low-income women.  Nearly 80 percent of women using Planned Parenthood clinics have incomes at or below 150 percent of poverty.  In addition, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that defunding Planned Parenthood would increase the deficit by $130 million over the next ten years. Despite these facts, the House Republicans announced yesterday that they will waste taxpayer dollars to carry out another witch hunt of Planned Parenthood by setting up a House Select Committee to investigate the organization. 

“These vicious, unfounded attacks take away attention from the real work we do—provide vital health care to women, men, and teens,” said Reina Schiffrin, President & CEO of PPHP. “Now we face the threat of losing federal funding to provide these services. We can’t, and we won’t, let that happen.”

“If Planned Parenthood were defunded at the federal level, Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic stands to lose up to $12 million annually in combined state and federal funding, which includes Medicaid and Title X funding,” said Joan Rosen, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors at PPHP. “This funding pays for such critical care as pregnancy testing, contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections and HIV, and breast and cervical cancer screenings.”

Louise Olay, a peer advocate at PPHP’s Comprehensive Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program (CAPP) program, said, “At Planned Parenthood, not only have I learned so much about my safety and my options, but I can help educate my peers as well.”

Milinda from White Plains said, “When I was told to get tested by a past partner for an STD, I knew that Planned Parenthood would be able to provide me with same day service. Thank you for being there for me in my moment of panic and uncertainty.”

In her role as the top Democrat on the House committee responsible for funding the federal government, Lowey has been calling for months on Republicans in Congress to come to the negotiating table to construct a bipartisan spending plan that invests in the country’s future, instead of advancing radical Tea Party priorities that Americans and residents in the Lower Hudson Valley simply do not want.

Lowey closed, “I will continue working as Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee to defeat these deeply misguided, ideologically-driven stunts, and return to responsibly investing in hardworking Americans’ futures.”

Congresswoman Lowey is a leader in Congress on protecting women’s health services and access to family planning.  Congresswoman Lowey:

• Authored the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act, enacted in 2008, to increase research on the links between breast cancer and the environment;
• Passed coverage of contraceptives for federal employees in 1998 and supports President Obama’s decision to require contraceptive coverage for health insurance while exempting churches and places of worship from requirements to which they are morally opposed;
• Successfully fought to ensure clinical trials at National Institutes of Health include females in order to understand gender differences in benefits and risks of medications and treatments; and
• Strongly supports the HHS WISEWOMAN program that screens women for heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among women.

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