Shoup letter: Health care

Less than a week after Republican congressional leadership faced a stunning rebuke on their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and block access to care at Planned Parenthood health centers nationwide, anti-women’s health politicians have found a new angle. Congressional Republicans are on a crusade to restrict access to reproductive health care. They are hoping to take away Title X funding from Planned Parenthood, which helps to ensure that more than 4 million people have health care in this country. The nation’s family planning program offers preventive health care services to those most in need. This is the only way that millions of folks who have low incomes or are uninsured have access to birth control, cancer screenings, STI tests and other basic care.

This is nothing but an attack on low-income people and marginalized communities. Idahoans deserve access to basic reproductive health care and preventative services, and we deserve better than to listen as our rights to basic health care are debated. Our rights are not up for debate. We should not have to question whether or not we can access basic health care. Idahoans deserve better.

This story was originally published April 18, 2017 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Shoup letter: Health care."