It's not enough that Republicans have successfully decreased Title X funding for family planning services by some
$30 million since 2010, now they want to gut it completely. Lauren Rankin has
the details:
Last week, the House Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee released a budget proposal for fiscal year 2016 that would remove all family planning funding under the Title X program. The Title X program provides access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, including cancer screenings, contraceptive care, STI testing and much more, for 4.6 million people.
Title X has been a critical resource for American women since it was enacted in 1970. Amanda Marcotte
breaks it down to the familiar:
That's right, they're trying to zero out Title X—the only federal program that directly subsidizes contraception—as well as other reproductive health care programs for low-income patients. Affordable STI tests? The pack of $15 birth control pills you get from Planned Parenthood? The Pap smear you got at the public health clinic? They want to get rid of all of it.
Notably, Title X provides
no money whatsoever for abortions. So this isn't about the choice issue, this is simply Republicans trying to take away base-level funding for health screenings and contraception from women who can't afford it.
Because, they're women.