Planned Parenthood Votes! Washington

Votes! Voices, is a weekly conversation about news, politics and happenings from Planned Parenthood Votes! Washington

Posted July 26, 2010
By Amy

There’s a lot happening in the reproductive rights world right now. After spending a week in Washington DC for our annual public affairs summit-meeting with people like Senator Maria Cantwell and hearing from Speaker Nancy Pelosi - it’s even clearer that the work we do here in "the other Washington" matters.

We may be on the other side of the country from our nation’s top lawmakers, but we’re often leading the way when it comes to advocating for key issues of reproductive rights in this country.

With more rights under threat recently, our efforts continue to be vital:

- A few weeks ago the Washington State Board of Pharmacy decided to backtrack on a fair, needed and hard-fought rule preventing pharmacies from refusing to dispense FDA-approved medication including emergency contraception. A court case defending the rule has now been delayed indefinitely pending the outcome of the rulemaking. Please take action today and let the Board of Pharmacy and the Governor know you won’t accept patients’ rights being ignored.

- Recently the state has learned that federal money we counted on when building our state budget may not arrive. This means there is a possibility that Washington may have to consider making additional cuts to our state budget. Once again, core services that people need during these tough economic times-including family planning services-are at risk.

A Committee will be holding budget priority hearings in Vancouver and Spokane this week!.

We need you to stand up and speak out about the impact of a devastating all cuts approach to our state budget, the importance of family planning, and to be a voice for women’s health and safety! Please RSVP via the links below, and we’ll follow up and get you all the information and talking points you need to protect women’s access to health care.

July 27th: Vancouver Budget Priority Meeting

July 29th: Spokane Budget Priority Meeting

- Just last week the Obama Administration announced a new insurance plan for high-risk patients who cannot purchase health insurance on the open market. We were shocked to learn that apparently the Obama administration put exactly the Stupak amendment approach into the high risk insurance pools, for women who are put the most at risk by an unintended pregnancy. This means that the administration made the decision to bar women from purchasing a plan covering abortion services, even with their own money. Please contact the White House and ask them to reverse this decision.

In DC, another inspiring speaker - Congresswoman Rosa Delauro from Connecticut - said that we can never stop fighting for our rights. She’s been in Congress since 1990, so she knows. Maybe by the time my four year old gets to voting age, there won’t be quite as many challenges to her reproductive rights. Either way, I agree with Congresswoman Delauro. It’s up to all of us to work to create a better future each and every day.

Find out how your representative voted here and then let him or her know how you feel.

The health care reform bill will extend health care coverage to tens of millions of women and families, guarantee access to affordable life-saving screenings for breast and cervical cancer, protect women against gender discrimination by private insurers, end the practice of dropping coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and significantly increase insurance coverage of reproductive health care, including family planning. It's a huge victory for women's health, but our work isn't over yet.

You can read the statement by Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, on the House passing the historic health care reform bill here.