Moments ago, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to bar Planned Parenthood from any type of federal funding for the services we provide to the more than 52,000 low-income patients throughout our region. We are is in the midst of an aggressive and unparalleled attack on women’s health and reproductive rights in our country – one that could wipe out more than a century of progress and put our patients and their families at risk.

Over the past several weeks Planned Parenthood and the issue of reproductive rights have received a significant amount of media. We are urging our supporters to Stand with Us, read what is being said and respond with the facts.

• In North Dakota: The House has passed the Defense of Human Life Act (a.k.a. the “personhood bill”), which grants legal rights to a fertilized human egg. It also has passed a bill to strengthen the state’s Abortion Control Act, mandating the dissemination of inaccurate materials about abortion, requiring women seeking an abortion to make two trips instead of one, and making it nearly impossible for at-risk teens to exercise their rights to “judicial bypass.”
  
  • FARGO FORUM North Dakota Legislature: Abortion bill bans embryo destruction
• In South Dakota: A bill mandating that a woman seeking an abortion wait 72 hours after her initial consultation with her doctor (and in the interim get counseling from a so-called “crisis pregnancy center”) is moving through the House.
  
  •  THE DAILY REPUBLIC SD panel endorses abortion counseling measure 
• In Minnesota: We learned this week much to our relief that Governor Dayton has fully funded the state's family planning programs in his newly released budget. These programs are critical to serving our patients, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck. This is just the opening chapter; the legislators have yet to move on their budgets. Meanwhile a resurgent Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) has won the introduction of a bill to eliminate Medicaid funding for abortion and a bill to establish “Choose Life” license plates, with the revenue going to adoption agencies that do not offer full options for women.
  
  • THE MINNESOTA INDEPENDENT Four abortion bills suggest Minnesota Republicans angling for lawsuit

Here are a few statistics regarding our Minnesota Title X Supported Clinics:

• 52,482 women and men received health care services
• 94 percent are women
• 94 percent of patients are 18 or over
• 61 percent have incomes at or below the federal poverty level
• 86 percent have incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level
• 42 percent are uninsured
• 37 percent receive public health insurance
• 2,236 patients have limited English proficiency
• 16,079 women received Pap tests through the Title X program
• 20,129 women received a breast exam through the Title X program
• 60,147 tests for sexually transmitted infections and HIV were conducted 
  • STAR TRIBUNE Planned Parenthood CEO: Title X 

If Title X funding is eliminated, family planning services, which are not only crucial to the lives of our patients, but also to the health of rural communities, will be even less accessible and the disparities between rural women’s health and their urban and suburban counterpart will grow. We need your help to defend women’s health care against these extremist measures.

You can make a difference by contacting your representatives and making a special gift to Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota today to help us continue the fight and keep our clinic doors open.