By Defunding Planned Parenthood, Republicans Would Reduce Services That Make Abortion Unnecessary

The healthcare bill proposed by Senate Republicans would reduce key benefits for millions of Americans and defund Planned Parenthood for a year, making breast cancer screenings and basic reproductive services more difficult for women to secure. We get response from Dr. Willie Parker, a physician, abortion provider and the board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health. "The Affordable Care Act expanded access to the preventive services of contraception and family planning," Parker notes. "It strikes me as odd that the people who are ideologically driven to reduce abortion in this country are going to reduce the very services that make abortion unnecessary. So, hundreds of thousands of women got their birth control through Medicaid coverage because it was a preventive service, and as a result of that, we've seen the lowest number of abortions in this country since it became legal."