Defunding Planned Parenthood would increase Medicaid births

I suggest reading the whole article.

http://www.vogue.com/article/gop-womens-health-rights-defund-planned-parenthood-results

March 15, 2017 2:46 PM by Jenny Kutner

After spending the past seven years promising to do away with Obamacare, congressional Republicans last week finally introduced the American Health Care Act (AHCA), a replacement measure that would (among other things) sharply cut Medicaid spending and defund Planned Parenthood for one year. The bill, which many are already referring as “Trumpcare,” is expected to reduce federal deficits by $337 billion in the next decade, but at a cost: An estimated 24 million fewer people will have insurance coverage by 2026 than under the Affordable Care Act.

But that’s not all: According to the Congressional Budget Office, there could be many, many more babies born under AHCA who qualify for Medicaid insurance coverage—which will end up costing the government even more.

On Monday, the CBO issued a report indicating the number of Medicaid births—which already account for nearly half of all births in the United States annually—will increase by thousands as a direct result of defunding Planned Parenthood, even for just one year. The organization has been targeted because it provides abortions, despite the fact that federal funding cannot be used to cover the procedure (as has been the case since the 1970s). The services that will no longer be funded should AHCA become law include Pap smears, STI tests, birth control, and cancer screenings.

In apparent anticipation of backlash against the measure, the House GOP rolled out AHCA without first getting a CBO score, a nonpartisan evaluation meant to give the public a clearer idea of how many people will get to retain their insurance coverage, and at what cost. Introducing the bill without a score, though, hasn’t made CBO scrutiny any less inevitable. And what that inevitable evaluation tells us isn’t promising.

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Additionally, Planned Parenthood is a key provider of prenatal care. What will happen to the women who become pregnant as a result of funding cuts during their pregnancies? Where will they turn to ensure they—and their unborn children—remain healthy?
[Which will result in more children with handicaps that cost the taxpayer money.]

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