I voted for Trump, not against Planned Parenthood: Column

I voted for Donald Trump because I wanted to see change in our country. One change I didn’t want to see was access to health care at Planned Parenthood blocked.

But Republican congressional leaders have already promised to do just that, with a provision to stop reimbursements for the health care Planned Parenthood provides.

Just like one in five women across the country, I went to Planned Parenthood here in Arizona in my 20s for health care. I was newly divorced, unemployed and uninsured, and I needed health services I could not otherwise afford.

These are services every woman needs at some point, and they are at risk. Vice President-elect Mike Pence and anti-women’s health members of Congress are pledging to attack Planned Parenthood and block patients from essential care, as they have threatened to do as many times as they could in the past 10 years. The difference this time is that they think President-elect Trump, as a Republican, will sign the bill.

It doesn’t make any sense for Trump, who said he would defend the American people from politics as usual, to sign a bill like this. Millions of mostly low-income people who rely on Planned Parenthood for essential health care — such as birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, well-woman exams and more — would no longer have access within their communities. And people who already face outsized barriers to getting care, especially people of color and people in rural communities, would face additional hurdles. A bill to defund Planned Parenthood doesn’t cross out a line in the federal budget — it stops people with Medicaid from being able to go to Planned Parenthood for basic reproductive health care.

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No federal dollars Planned Parenthood receives can be used to provide abortion, except in very rare cases of rape, incest or when the life of the woman is in danger. The services that would no longer be available to millions of people are the very services that prevent unintended pregnancy, which has been part of Planned Parenthood’s mission for 100 years.

As 16 national polls show, the majority of Americans support the work Planned Parenthood does to help people be healthy and make responsible, informed decisions about whether and when to have children. Trump said he'd try to be a president for all Americans — that should include the 2.5 million people who go to Planned Parenthood every year.

My vote for Trump was not a vote against Planned Parenthood. I voted for him based on the issues he campaigned on: creating jobs, making health care more affordable, and making our country great again. I voted for him because I trust him to get our economy moving again.

I knew he'd have to make promises to appease the anti-abortion wing of the Republican Party. I’m hopeful that Trump will see that defunding Planned Parenthood is the kind of campaign promise he shouldn’t keep. I did not vote to send him to the White House to take away health care from people struggling to get by. People like myself at 25. I’m grateful that Planned Parenthood was there for me, and I want it to be there for every woman who needs it.

We are all trying to make ends meet. Planned Parenthood has been helping people do just that for a century. If Trump is going to be the president we elected to give us real solutions to our very real problems, he shouldn’t start his presidency by blocking access to Planned Parenthood.

Melody Forbes is a human resources professional living in Phoenix.

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