Attacking Planned Parenthood Is Attacking Women Print
Commentary
Written by Chris Taylor, State Rep. 76th Assembly   
Monday, 01 February 2016 10:42

women's healthThe Wisconsin Senate passed SB 238/AB 311 last week, a bill that could effectively shut down one of Wisconsin’s oldest and most trusted women’s health care centers, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Republicans fueled their arguments with misleading and untrue videos released last summer, but this is really about women having the ability to control their own destiny, free from intrusive politicians who think they know better.


MADISON - Last week, the Wisconsin Senate passed yet another bill, SB 238/AB 311, aimed at shutting down one of Wisconsin’s oldest, largest and most trusted women’s health care centers, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI). This most recent attack on women’s health care will make it more difficult and expensive for health centers to provide birth control and other critical health care services to Wisconsin’s women. This disastrous legislation creates a double standard among health care providers and treats the women they serve as second-class citizens.

SB 238/AB 311 requires certain reproductive health centers to bill Medicaid for the actual acquisition costs and dispensing fees for prescription drugs. In Wisconsin, there are over 700 hospitals, clinics, hemophilia centers, and HIV/AIDS organizations that are 340B covered entities. Of those 700 hospitals and clinics, PPWI is the only health care provider who will experience a slash in reimbursement prices.

Though Republicans attempted to fuel their obsession with shutting down Planned Parenthood with heavily edited and misleading videos released this summer, reality struck this week when a Texas grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing and indicted the creators of the videos for paying money for fetal parts. In fact, officials in 10 other states have cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing and another 8 have declined to investigate due to a complete lack of evidence.

Make no mistake, when this legislature attacks PPWI, they are really attacking women’s ability to access life-saving health care, to plan and space pregnancies, and to decide for themselves if and when they become parents. At the end of the day this struggle over reproductive health care is really about women having the ability to control their own destiny, free from intrusive politicians who think they know better.

Last Updated on Monday, 01 February 2016 11:17