Wisconsin Senate votes to slash Planned Parenthood funding

The state-level attacks on Planned Parenthood’s ability to provide affordable health care for low-income women continue. In Wisconsin:

Along party lines, senators voted 18-14 for a bill that would restrict how much Planned Parenthood could be reimbursed for prescription drugs, stripping it of perhaps $4 million a year, according to a rough estimate by Planned Parenthood. A second measure the Senate approved would cut another $3.5 million in government payments to Planned Parenthood.

The moves come four years after Republicans made other funding cuts to Planned Parenthood, which the group says led to the closure of five rural clinics that provided birth control and health screenings but not abortions.

But hey, it’s all just fine and dandy, because:

Sen. Duey Stroebel (R-Saukville) said taxpayers who oppose abortion shouldn't have their money go toward Planned Parenthood. Women can get their birth control from other providers, he said.

"Since when is birth control a rare commodity? I think it's pretty easy to find," he said.

Spoken like a man who probably has health insurance and doesn’t have to take responsibility for birth control anyway. In reality, if you can’t afford to go to the doctor—because, say, your local Planned Parenthood clinic was forced to close due to Republican funding cuts—many forms of birth control are going to be very hard to “find” or pay for. But pshaw. What’s really important here, according to Duey Stroebel, is that if you’re a taxpayer who opposes abortion, you should be able to cut off access to birth control for low-income women.

The prescription drug reimbursement bill goes next to the Assembly (also controlled by Republicans), while the Assembly already passed the bill prohibiting Title X money from going to Planned Parenthood, so Gov. Scott Walker’s desk is that bill’s next stop.