Oppose H.R. 217
Advocacy Letter - 02/14/11
Source: The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Recipient: U.S. House of Representatives
Dear Representative:
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a diverse coalition of more than 200 national organizations working to protect and promote the rights of all persons in the United States, we urge you to oppose any attempt to eliminate or restrict Title X funding in the FY11 Continuing Resolution, including H.R. 217, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. This bill, introduced by Representative Mike Pence (R-IN), is intended to deny needed funding for critical health care services to women and girls throughout the country.
The Leadership Conference believes strongly that health care for all persons in the United States is a fundamental human right. As such, we believe that organizations that provide quality health care services in a cost-effective manner, particularly in low-income communities, deserve broad public support.
This bill is a direct attack on women’s health care and the organizations that provide it. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), a highly regarded organization that has spent 95 years providing valuable health care services to millions of American women and men, particularly in low-income communities, is a member in good standing of The Leadership Conference. Loss of the critical health services it provides would have a severely adverse impact on the life and health of people of color and their families, as well as low-income families regardless of color.
PPFA is the nation’s leading sexual and reproductive health care provider, with affiliates that operate more than 820 health centers nationwide, providing medical services and sexuality education for millions of women, men, and teenagers each year. These centers provide routine medical exams, cancer screenings, immunizations, contraceptive services, and testing and treatment for HIV and STDs.
This ideologically driven effort to expand the ban on federal funds to include all family planning services at any organization that also performs abortions is a thinly-veiled attack aimed primarily at PPFA and its hundreds of health centers.
PPFA is especially important for low-income communities. Eighty-five percent of PPFA health care clients are in poverty, and PPFA provides family planning help and medical care to over 1.85 million low-income women each year. The Leadership Conference itself has made a commitment to eradicate poverty through its Half in Ten campaign, aimed at reducing poverty by half in ten years. The loss of funding to PPFA would deal a grievous blow to this effort.
While it is important that Congress exercise legitimate oversight in a review of the vital health care services that women and families need, ideological efforts like that of anti-abortion group Live Action to employ a deceitful “sting operation,” using edited video, to create a smear campaign has fostered an atmosphere in which unwarranted legislative efforts such as this one gain traction, and should be rejected at all costs. PPFA’s handling of this issue is beyond reproach. After receiving information from staff members voicing concerns about potential sex trafficking, PPFA quickly reported the incidents to the U.S. Attorney General, and fired a worker who did not follow proper procedure. Moreover, PPFA has committed to system-wide re-training of its employees by April 1, 2011 to ensure that all employees are fully aware of PPFA policies and procedures.
In this time of national economic instability, we are united with other Americans in our principal concern for job creation and economic recovery. We hope that Members of Congress will join us in this effort. The ideological attack on PPFA and other similar organizations, which, if successful, would result in limited access to health care for America’s most vulnerable persons, only adds to the economic woes that average Americans currently face. We therefore urge you to oppose this ill-considered and harmful initiative.
Thank you for your consideration of our views. If you have any questions about this letter, please contact Lisa Bornstein at (202) 263-2856 or bornstein@civilrights.org.
Sincerely
Wade Henderson
President & CEO
Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President
