Just the Latest Attack on Planned Parenthood and the Women It Serves

This week, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, which have provided millions of Americans with accessible, affordable health care. These are lifelines that from their start were attacked by Republicans and their extremist allies around the country. But we held strong and 50 years later, generations of Americans have benefited from Medicare and Medicaid. Now we are witnessing another ideological attack that would put women's health and women's lives at risk - this time by targeting women's reproductive health care, an issue that was resolved back in 1973. Today, the Republican majority is forcing another vote to defund an organization that for nearly 100 years has provided women and their families with preventive and life-saving health care - Planned Parenthood. This legislation, which is being driven by the outrageous and potentially illegal actions of an extremist group, is just the latest chapter in the long history of attacks on Planned Parenthood, the health care providers who work there, and the women they serve. Go back nearly 100 years ago to the beginning of Planned Parenthood, when America's first birth control clinic opened in Brooklyn, New York - before women could vote or even sign contracts. The day the clinic opened, dozens of women waited hours in line to get life-saving birth control information. The response? The clinic was raided and shut down just nine days later, and its founder Margaret Sanger was thrown in jail. America has...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news