Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY17) marked the one-year anniversary of the GOP’s failed attack on women’s health by calling on his Republican colleagues to focus on a bipartisan effort to create jobs, balance the budget and move the country forward rather than fight the old culture wars. One year ago, the GOP House Majority tried to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, threatening important health care measures for millions of women across the country. 

“The Republican Party bangs the drum about smaller government and rails against ‘government intrusion’ into our lives. For them it is wrong for government to provide health care, but it is fine for it to tell you who you can marry and to restrict what health care you can receive,” said Rep. Engel.  “The American people have no patience for the rehashing of the culture wars, and the Republican House Majority should abandon their obsession.  We should be talking about creating more jobs for Americans, or how we can solve the many problems associated with energy, education, our infrastructure, and immigration rather than limiting options for women to obtain health care.” 

More than 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood health centers do is preventive health care, including lifesaving cancer screenings, annual exams, and STD testing and treatment, as well as birth control.  Last year, Planned Parenthood health centers provided care for nearly three million patients, 770,000 Pap tests, nearly 750,000 breast exams, and more than four million tests for STDs, including HIV tests, along with providing affordable birth control for 2.2 million patients.

“Planned Parenthood is a lifeline for millions of low- to middle-income women.  For many women, especially in rural and underserved communities, Planned Parenthood is their only source of health care in providing such irreplaceable services such as mammograms, health checkups, pap tests and other cancer screening, HIV screening, testing for high blood pressure and referrals to specialists.  Taking away funding for Planned Parenthood is not a death sentence for the organization, but it very well could be for some of the women who rely upon the services,” added Rep. Engel, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health.

“I refuse to believe the American people want to target Planned Parenthood – and recent polling numbers prove they don’t.  Let’s do as we promised and work together to solve problems and get people back to work,” added Rep. Engel.

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