FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ana Sandoval, PPAC Communications 916.446.5247

Planned Parenthood to Governor Brown: 'Thank you' Governor's letter stands up for family planning services

SACRAMENTO -- California Governor Jerry Brown sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner today urging Boehner to reject H.R 217 (Pence) which would restrict funding for and access to critical family planning services.

"California is already facing painful budget cuts," Brown said in today's letter. "Further decreases in federal funding, as proposed in H.R. 217, could hardly come at a worse time."

"Planned Parenthood thanks Gov. Brown for standing up for the millions of women and men who come to our health centers for essential preventive care," said Kathy Kneer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. "We are seeing tens of thousands of new patients each year, many of whom are struggling to just make ends meet. They come to Planned Parenthood because they trust us to provide for their essential health care needs. And we're here for them. Bills like H.R. 217, which would cut funds to our health centers, are bad health policy and bad fiscal policy."

Ninety-seven percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood health centers are preventive care such as life-saving cancer screenings, contraception, STD prevention and treatment, breast health care as well as comprehensive sexual health education programs.

H.R. 217 is one of several attempts by House Republicans to reduce access to abortion services and access to family planning and preventive health services for millions of Americans, including the elimination of the federal Title X family planning program.

A new report by the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute, State Facts About Title X and Family Planning: California, finds that the Title X program not only ensures access to these critical health care services, but it generates almost four dollars in budget savings for every one dollar invested in the program. The report demonstrated that the House Republican plan will have a serious detrimental effect on California women and teens, and on the California state budget.

Some highlights of the Guttmacher Study:

• In 2008, contraceptive services provided at Title X–supported centers in California helped women avoid 200,200 unintended pregnancies, which would have resulted in 89,000 births and 83,600 abortions.
• In the absence of these services, the level of abortion in California would be 34% higher.
• In 2006, contraceptive services provided at Title X–supported centers in California helped women younger than age 20 avoid 35,901 unintended pregnancies.
• In the absence of these services, the level of teen pregnancy in California would be 37% higher.
• By helping women avoid unintended pregnancies and the births that would follow, the services provided at Title X–supported centers in California saved $581,890,000 in public funds in 2008.
• Title X–supported centers provided contraceptive care to 963,600 women in California in 2008.
• In 2006, 291 family planning centers in California received support from Title X.

To read the full report see http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/title-X/CA.html

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Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California (PPAC) is the state public policy office representing California’s eight separately incorporated Planned Parenthood affiliates. Through advocacy and electoral action, PPAC promotes sound public policy in areas of reproductive health care, family planning and comprehensive sex education.