The main budget bill, LB944, contains language that would remove Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s access to federal Title X funding, putting Title X funding in jeopardy for all healthcare providers across the entire state. There are 28,000 Nebraskans who count on Title X health centers for access to health care.

It is not the role of the State Legislature to choose who my healthcare provider will be—politicians are not doctors. While Nebraska refuses to take policy measures to expand access to affordable healthcare, they continue to double down on anti-woman, anti-worker, anti-family positions by removing funding for the only access to healthcare some of us have. 

Tell Nebraska legislators that you are watching, and you won't sit quietly or stand idly by when thousands of low-income Nebraska women risk losing access to pap smears, breast exams, and contraception. Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of Title X services in the state, because women trust Planned Parenthood. Other Title X clinics in Nebraska exist, but, as they have testified, they do not have the capacity to pick up all the patients who will be left without care if Planned Parenthood is defunded. Defunding Planned Parenthood will result in thousands of Nebraskans losing the only health care they can afford, from doctors they trust, plain and simple.

Debate on the budget started today and I was there with dozens of other people standing up for Nebraskans who rely on the care provided by Planned Parenthood. Just as we stood up last year. And the year after that. And just as we will continue to do because we have the will to stand up for the vulnerable, and all they have is fear. They don't have what it takes to win this fight they're picking. Working together, we will get this done.