Yesterday, over 100 people rallied with the Maine Choice Coalition at the Universalist Church in Portland to urge Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe to protect women's health services.
On February 18, the House passed an amendment offered by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) that would eliminate all federal funding to Planned Parenthood because the organization uses non-federal dollars to provide women with abortion care. The Continuing Resolution, which Pence's amendment is attached to, would also eliminate all funding for Title X, the National Family Planning Program.
Please help us by sending our Senators a message that you stand with Planned Parenthood and Women's Health.
If allowed to pass, the effects will be devastating for rural and lower-income Maine women that have limited access to health services.
From the Portland Press Herald:
Kate Brogan of the Family Planning Association of Maine said the health centers provide affordable, primary and preventive health care to 30,000 women, men and teenagers, including breast and cervical cancer screenings, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, prenatal care for low-income women, and birth control services that help women and teenagers avert unwanted pregnancies.
"Reproductive health care is basic health care for women and teens," Brogan said. Without the funding for the centers, she said, "Maine's teen pregnancy rate would be twice what it is today and Maine's abortion rate would be 86 percent higher."
