WASHINGTON — After the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal guarantee of abortion rights three years ago, a near-total abortion ban went into effect in Kentucky.
Although Planned Parenthood could no longer provide abortions, it continued offering a range of other services, including sexually transmitted infection screenings, contraception and HIV tests, said the organization’s Kentucky state director, Tamarra Wieder.
The organization has clinics in Louisville and Lexington.
“Fifty percent of our patients come from incomes under the federal poverty level, so when we're looking across our communities, we're serving a population that is underserved and doesn't have a provider that they see regularly or at all, other than Planned Parenthood,” Wieder said.
The mega budget bill Republicans are now trying to move through Congress would put many Kentucky patients at risk of losing Planned Parenthood services by banning Medicaid coverage of them, the organization said.
“When they don't have access to Medicaid, that's going to drive them away from getting access to basic health care, so people are not going to seek care because they're not going to be able to pay for it,” said Wieder.
This week, Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to keep the federal Medicaid funding restriction for Planned Parenthood in the bill, rejecting a Democrat-led amendment.
“We should prevent Medicaid dollars from being used to bankroll organizations whose primary purpose is providing abortion procedures that are morally objectionable to a large number of American taxpayers,” said Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D.
Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, chairs the committee.
“The House Reconciliation bill bans Medicaid funding for big abortion providers – American taxpayers should not be on the hook for subsidizing abortions,” Guthrie said in a statement Friday. “If these providers wish to continue to receive federal funding, they can choose to stop performing abortions.”
In a statement referring to House Republicans Thursday, Jennifer Allen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates said, “To be clear, this isn't even about the basic right to abortion; Medicaid is already banned from covering abortion care and they know it.”
Republicans hope to get their bill passed on the House floor by Memorial Day.
