The U.S. Senate is currently set to consider a bill that would cease taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. Here is a letter I composed for my Senators in Montana, who happen to be pro-choice. Please feel free to use it for your own letter and email it to the Senators in your state. (You will need to fill in your own info in the beginning as well as further down. If your Senator is pro-life, please consider still sending this letter and change the wording to be appropriate for his or her views. They need to know what their constituents want!)
This will only take a few minutes of your time!
Here are the email contacts for each U.S. Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Letter:
Dear Senator ________ ,
I am writing as a constituent of yours in ____(City)_____ . The United States Senate is currently set to consider a bill that would cease federal funding of Planned Parenthood. I am asking you to support this bill.
While I know historically you have always supported non-governmental interference in abortion issues, the issue set before us is about much more than abortion. Are you aware that Planned Parenthood employees have been caught repeatedly on video encouraging young people and their abusers to withhold information about their age and the age of their sexual partners so that it’s possible to avoid the mandatory reporting to law enforcement? Recently, Planned Parenthood staff members were caught on video collaborating with self-identified sex traffickers of young girls and coaching them on ways to profit off of these girls in the weeks following an abortion! I am sure you would have to agree this is absolutely unacceptable, illegal conduct -- from ANY organization, but especially from one that receives American's federal tax dollars to facilitate its operations.
There is also the concerning issue regarding Planned Parenthood's financial records. They have been given billions in tax dollars, yet they lack accountability for this money. A report from the Government Accountability Office gleaned from Planned Parenthood's Single Audit Act reports show that Planned Parenthood failed to account for $1.3 billion dollars in government funding received between the years 2002-2008. Is this acceptable? As a taxpaying citizen, I demand better. As my Senator, I respectfully ask you to demand better as well.
Planned Parenthood and its supporters have been in the media frequently in recent weeks claiming that if their clinics go out of business due to losing government funding, women will be unable to access health care. This is like saying that if McDonalds were to go out of business, people would be unable to eat hamburgers.
Planned Parenthood does not have a monopoly on women's health care, even for those with low or no incomes. As I'm sure you are aware, there are thousands of clinics across the country — other than Planned Parenthood — that receive federal funding and offer access to quality health care for low-income women and families. This is in addition to the non-profit clinics that provide health care at low to even no cost with absolutely no assistance from the federal government.
Examples of these clinics in Montana are Community Health Partners, county health departments, and places like St. Catherine's Health Care Clinic in Belgrade. ______Substitute your state's information here or simply delete this paragraph.________
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter, and again, I urge you to vote in favor of ceasing to support Planned Parenthood with taxpayer money.
Most sincerely,
___________
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