NASHVILLE, TN (March 28, 2018) – Despite what has proven to be another hostile legislative session against women’s health, patient choice, and abortion, Planned Parenthood supporters plan to turn out for today’s 8:30 a.m. Senate vote. Decked out in pink and donning birth control themed costumes, supporters refuse to allow legislators to pass damaging legislation without making their presence known.
House Bill 2251/Senate Bill 2148 is sponsored by Representative Jimmy Matlock and Senator Mike Bell. The bill excludes health care providers, except hospitals, that engage in abortions services from receiving direct or indirect state funds. If passed, care will be stripped from Tennessee’s most vulnerable and highly discriminated against populations, including women and people of color. In the proposed practice, TennCare (Medicaid) patients will no longer be able to access care at Planned Parenthood health centers, and similar providers, for mammograms, well woman exams, and other preventive and family planning services not associated with abortions.
Francie Hunt, Executive Director of Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood expressed, “Our state has refused to expand Medicaid, which caused 280,000 Tennesseans to be without coverage, and we have the second highest amount of hospital closures in the nation. Now is the time to trust patients and provide them with as many qualified health care options as possible, instead of restricting access and limiting providers.”
This vote comes a few weeks after the 7-2 vote against the Women’s Health Equity Bill HB 2627/SB 2185, which proactively required coverage of contraception in a way that enshrined and expanded the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit, and required coverage for women’s preventive services.
About Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, Inc. (TAPP)
Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood is a 501(c)(4) organization whose mission is to encourage and protect informed individual choice regarding reproductive health care; to advocate public policies that guarantee the right to choice and full and nondiscriminatory access to reproductive health care; and to foster and preserve a social and political climate favorable to the exercise of reproductive choice. Visit www.tnadvocatesforpp.org for more information.
