I know many Americans joined me in being frustrated and appalled that there is an ongoing attempt to sacrifice women's health by the Congress and the Minnesota House.
The efforts to deny federal funding and access for minors to Planned Parenthood, an essential provider of women's health care, is shortsighted and wrong for our country and for Minnesota.
The Planned Parenthood clinic in Rochester is a Title X-supported health clinic that has been a part of the fabric of our community for the last 40 years. In 2010, the clinic served more than 5,000 women in need of affordable, preventive health care. I have volunteer my time at the Rochester clinic and know that a typical patient is a woman with an annual income of less than $11,000. For most of these women, Planned Parenthood is their only source of health care.
To require parental permission for this care is cruel and out of touch with reality. To require parental permission for a visit will lead to increased STDs and infertility. The House leadership is clearly out of touch with the needs and wishes of the American people, especially those of women
Eliminating Title X and denying this important funding to Planned Parenthood is bad policy, bad politics and bad for women's health.
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Dr. Andrew E. Good
Rochester
