On Thursday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Planned Parenthood CEO and President Alexis McGill Johnson stated that the reconciliation bill going after the organization’s funding is unconstitutional because Planned Parenthood is being defunded for being “a strong advocate and vocal rights supporter for abortion access across this country.” And the defunding provision is “really just a backdoor ban” on abortion.
Johnson said, “[T]his reconciliation bill is devastating to patients and an entire healthcare system, all because of a decades-long plan to target and defund Planned Parenthood. We see our argument and our best case is to expose the naked attempt to attack and, really, punish Planned Parenthood, not simply for providing access to abortion care, which we know Medicaid does not cover, but, in fact, to be a strong advocate and vocal rights supporter for abortion access across this country. And so, we are leaning heavily on the First Amendment to protect our right to free speech and our right to association, because we believe that that is a fundamental freedom that should protect everyday Americans who seek access to health care from the providers who fight so hard on their behalf.”
Later, host William Brangham asked, “Conservatives have argued that this isn’t about Planned Parenthood, per se, but it’s about the power of Congress to decide where taxpayer dollars are spent. Some of those legislators also argue that they just simply don’t want any money to support abortion care, reproductive care at all. What is your counter to that?”
Johnson answered, “The way this law was designed was specifically to target Planned Parenthood as a provider and our associated organizations, affiliated organizations. So, when you design a law that intends to just trap one organization, at best two, in it that is really a targeted backdoor abortion ban because they know that, by attacking the resources that Planned Parenthood gets for providing things like STI testing and treatment, for providing birth control, for providing wellness exams and breast cancer screenings, those are the sorts of things that are being defunded in this egregious law and access to abortion is really just a backdoor ban while they take away access to the other services.”
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