Lawmakers must protect abortion access in state
By Courtney Normand / For The Herald
With the federal government attacking abortion and reproductive health every day, why isn’t Washington doing everything it can to fight back and preserve access?
Abortion access across the country is under attack from Donald Trump and Elon Musk. These two billionaires are working on multiple fronts to target Planned Parenthood and the patients who rely on it. Their goal is to use every method possible to strip away funding for abortion providers, even if the funding isn’t used for abortions at all.
The Trump administration is dead set on defunding providers like Planned Parenthood. It has already withheld millions of dollars in national family planning funding in 23 states (thankfully, not Washington; yet), and is threatening a nationwide defunding of Planned Parenthood. It doesn’t matter to the administration that we are often someone’s sole provider for essential health care, including birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, gender-affirming care, abortion, cancer screenings and more.
At the same time, Republican leaders in Washington, D.C., are weighing enormous Medicaid cuts to pay for even more tax cuts for the wealthy. Nationally, 2 out of every 5 births are covered by Medicaid. In Washington, Planned Parenthood is a key provider of essential care for Medicaid patients, with over half of patients using Medicaid to cover birth control, wellness exams and preventive screenings. Now, with news of Trump’s leaked budget proposal — which would entirely eliminate vital programs like the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program and Title X — our worst fears could quickly become reality.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-lawmakers-must-protect-abortion-access-in-state/