Tim Ryan: “Title X of the Public Health Services Act reaches our most vulnerable populations and is a primary source of…”

“Title X of the Public Health Services Act reaches our most vulnerable populations and is a primary source of reproductive health services for low-income women, lowering the rate of unintended pregnancies, reducing the need for abortion, and decreasing infant mortality and morbidity. It is good public policy. For many women, Planned Parenthood is their only source of health care. In some States like Wisconsin, Utah, and my own Connecticut, Planned Parenthood is the only title X provider. It sees 65,000 patients a year in Connecticut and provides critical family-planning infrastructure in our State. This amendment would be devastating, especially for the thousands of women whose sole source of medical care is these clinics. This amendment plainly discriminates against the uninsured, leaving the most vulnerable in our society in the most helpless situation. If we truly do value, if we value, as we say we do, women's health, we cannot sabotage title X, we cannot strip Planned Parenthood of funding, and we cannot pass this amendment.”