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One of the impacts of the Republicans' mega bill is that millions of women will likely lose access to birth control and other kinds of reproductive health care. NPR's Katia Riddle reports.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: Nowhere in the GOP spending plan does it say the words Planned Parenthood, but it bans Medicaid payments to large health care nonprofits that offer abortions. Alexis McGill Johnson is the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
ALEXIS MCGILL JOHNSON: This is going to be devastating for the patients that Planned Parenthood serves.
RIDDLE: The organization says 200 clinics across the country are now in jeopardy.
JOHNSON: The majority of Planned Parenthood health centers that are at risk of closure are in medically underserved areas. They're in areas where there is a primary care health shortage, right? They're in rural areas.
RIDDLE: And most are in states where abortion is still legal. The defunding proposal will not affect states which have already stopped Planned Parenthood clinics from getting Medicaid funding.
MICHELLE VELASQUEZ: This is really a backdoor abortion ban.
RIDDLE: Michelle Velasquez is an attorney at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. There are 21 Planned Parenthood clinics in that state. She says abortion is just one thing that happens at these clinics. If they close, it will deprive women of other kinds of essential health care as well.
VELASQUEZ: People just want to be able to go see the doctor or go see their nurse practitioner when they need to and get birth control and get STI testing and treatment and have preventative exams for cervical cancer.
RIDDLE: In addition to the Planned Parenthood provision, the huge cuts in Medicaid will also jeopardize access to women's healthcare. Dana Singiser is with the organization Contraceptive Access Initiative.
DANA SINGISER: By taking a sledgehammer to Medicaid, we estimate that 2.7 million women of reproductive age will lose access to contraceptive care, and another 1.4 to 2 million women of reproductive age would lose access to contraceptive care due to the attacks on the Affordable Care Act.
RIDDLE: Singiser described the impact as breathtaking. NPR reached out to the White House for comment but did not hear back. Katia Riddle, NPR News.
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