WASSERMAN SCHULTZ STATEMENT ON TRUMP SIGNING BILL ATTACKING AMERICANS’ ACCESS TO FAMILY PLANNING

Sunrise – U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23) issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s signing of H.J. Res. 43, a resolution under the Congressional Review Act that targets Americans’ access to family planning services:

“Today President Trump endorsed yet another legislative attempt to weaken women’s access to vital health care servics. For nearly four decades, Title X has ensured that a vital safety-net of family planning funding is available to health providers who deliver quality care to low-income women, especially those who are uninsured or under-insudred with nowhere else to turn. Title X funds go to providers who offer birth control, cancer screenings, and other vital services to 4 million people.

Unfortunately, states have targeted certain Title X health providers such as Planned Parenthood to block them from receiving this funding. In my state of Florida, Republican lawmakers have already tried to end Medicaid enrollees’ access to family planning services by Planned Parenthood, which serves more than 67,000 pateints each year in Florida. For many of these Floridians, Planned Parenthood is the only health care provider they have, and public funding such as Medicaid and Title X is the only way they are able to access this affordable care.

And if that isn’t enough to know that Trump’s action today will have devastating effects on women across the nation, we need only look to Texas, where the attacks were successful and led to the loss of 54% of patients at specialized family planning clinics in just two years. Providers reported that many of these patients were unable to find other health centers to meet their basic health care needs and went without lifesaving screenings like breast and cervical cancer screenings, as well as sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment.

By signing H.J. Res. 43 into law today, Trump killed a regulation designed to reiterate that no qualified healh providers could be denied this funding. Earlier this year Trump signed an executive order that reinstated the so-called Mexico City Policy, a global gag rule which basically prohibits U.S. funding to global family planning groups that provide information on or pay for abortions with private funds.

This has gone on long enough. Women and men across the country are tired of these Republican attacks on women’s health services. In poll after recent poll, three out of four Americans say they oppose defunding Planned Parenthood. It’s not surprising that Trump, for once, hid from cameras when he signed this dangerous legislation. This sexist campaign by Republicans to erode women’s health and reproductive rights must end.”