How many times do we need to say this? Defunding Planned Parenthood is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. Period. Of course, that won’t stop the Republicans from trying to put it in their Senate health care bill. Under their monstrosity of a plan, Planned Parenthood would not be eligible to receive Medicaid funds for an entire year. This would leave millions of patients who seek services from the organization (2.4 million to be exact) without care. This fact is completely unimportant to the Republicans. After all, to them, what’s another few million people without care—especially when Trumpcare will increase the ranks of the uninsured by 22 million? House Speaker Paul Ryan seems to think that community health centers will pick up the slack for patients who lose care when Planned Parenthood is defunded. Of course, he’s delusional, because that’s not at all how any of this works.
But data from the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates abortion rights, shows the gap that would be left by defunding Planned Parenthood, which serves one-third of all contraception clients among family-planning clinics nationwide, would be very difficult to fill. In some states, Planned Parenthood serves six times as many contraception patients as FQHCs [federally qualified health centers, which receive funds to provide health services to low-income persons]. Under the defunding, people on Medicaid, who make up more than half of Planned Parenthood’s clients, would probably have to go to other clinics. If FQHCs in those states were to absorb those patients, as Republicans say they could, they would have to multiply their caseloads overnight. And if the budget cuts forced Planned Parenthood clinics to limit their hours or close their doors, there would be even more patients for FQHCs to take in.
We’ve yet to hear any proposal from the Republicans about trying to increase funding to those FQHCs so that they can properly treat all the new patients they will be receiving now that Planned Parenthood won’t be getting any Medicaid funds under their plan. And guess what? We won’t (huge shocker). Republicans love defunding anything and everything that actually helps people (especially the poor) with the services they need—but when it comes to actually funding something that isn’t related to security or war, they are as tight-fisted with money as Ebenezer Scrooge. So that means no extra money for these clinics that will be buried in new patients, and more unwanted pregnancies and health risks as women lose access to contraception.
The burden on FQHCs — and on the women who could no longer access birth control — would be most acutely felt in rural areas, where clinics are more sparse. [...]
If patients were turned away from Planned Parenthood en masse, rural clinics would face much greater growing pains, potentially leaving many more women without care.
Through this incredibly stupid plan, an additional burden is placed on these clinics as they try to manage issues related to population density. Because some states only have a handful of Planned Parenthoods that provide services, women have to travel hundreds of miles to be seen. Closing those centers or not allowing them to accept Medicaid will also impact FQHCs who will now have to see those patients.
In some rural areas, it’s not just a matter of local FQHCs having to increase their caseloads. Planned Parenthood is often the only clinic around for hundreds of miles. In rural central Minnesota, for instance, people would have to drive at least two hours to get to their nearest FQHC for contraceptive care. Not only would those distant clinics have to absorb local Planned Parenthood clientele, they’d also have to take in those from around the state for women to maintain access to contraception.
Again, this is a ridiculous idea which will only end up costing more money and will rob women of the necessary reproductive services they need. But common sense doesn’t matter to the Republicans in the Senate. Let’s hope this bill is defeated and that it ends up in the garbage, right where it belongs.