Emboldened by the election of Donald Trump as president, Republicans in Congress are expected to once again push to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. They could attach such a measure to legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which President-elect Trump said he would ask Congress to do immediately.
Congress has more important work to do — such as investigating Russia’s involvement in the November election and considering Trump’s cabinet nominations — but members could again waste much of their time on a Planned Parenthood witch hunt.
Instead of going down this road, the language to defund Planned Parenthood should be kept out of any ACA repeal bills. This work will fall to moderate lawmakers, especially Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has opposed past efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.
As the debate unfolds, here are some facts to keep in mind: There is no federal appropriation, or budget line, for Planned Parenthood. Instead, the health care provider receives reimbursements through Medicaid for the low-income patients it treats. Between 15 percent and 20 percent of Planned Parenthood clients in Maine are covered by Medicaid.
Abortions account for only 3 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides, and none of the federal money the organization receives pays for abortions. Doctors and other health care workers at their clinics spend most of their time providing cancer screenings, prenatal care, contraception and other care to women across the country.
It pays for many of these services through the more than $500 million in public funds it receives annually, much of it through Medicaid, which pays for medical services for the poor.
In Maine, Planned Parenthood provides health care to more than 10,000 patients, and it provided $3.5 million in free or discounted care last year.
Without the federal funds, as many as 650,000 women nationally would have reduced access to health care, according to analysis last year by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Other medical providers would not be able to absorb the patients that would be turned away by Planned Parenthood if it lost its federal funding. When Louisiana sought to end Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood, state officials argued there were 2,000 other medical providers who could provide the same care. When Planned Parenthood challenged the law, a federal judge was incredulous that the state’s list of practitioners who provided family planning included dentists, ophthalmologists and audiologists. A pared-down Louisiana list included 29 providers, some of which aren’t accepting new patients; others didn’t provide contraception.
Most Americans don’t agree with the Republican-led push to defund Planned Parenthood. Numerous polls last year found that the majority of Americans favored continued federal funding for the medical provider.
Sens. Collins and Angus King have opposed previous efforts to stop the flow of federal dollars to Planned Parenthood. Last year, Collins was one of two Republican senators to vote against a bill that included language to defund Planned Parenthood. Defunding, she said in statement then, would have meant “depriving millions of women of access to basic health care and forcing them to give up the health provider of their choice.”
Once again, Collins is likely to be one of a small number of Republican lawmakers to take the principled, fact-based stance in support of women’s health over engaging in a partisan campaign to punish Planned Parenthood. Facts and the majority of Americans are on her side.
