(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced a resolution last week to “recognize the importance of Planned Parenthood’s contributions to women’s health care and reproductive rights in America over the last 100 years.”
The resolution voiced strong support for the nation’s largest abortion provider, declaring that “the organization remains an essential thread in the fabric of society, and it will be key in the next century to assisting millions of women, men, and young people in accessing the health care they need and deserve, no matter who they are or where they live.”
“Planned Parenthood should not be defunded, attacked, or discriminated against for their role as a vital women’s health care provider across the country,” the resolution stated.
It emphasized support for “the wide-ranging preventive services that Planned Parenthood Federation of America doctors, nurses, and staff provide every day to patients across the United States” and recognized “that Planned Parenthood is a safety-net provider that reaches medically underserved people who are critically in need of compassionate care.”
The organization will celebrate it’s 100th anniversary on October 16, and the resolution highlighted and celebrated this, noting that the first “birth control health clinic” founded by Margaret Sanger on October 16, 1916 was “founded on the idea that women should have the information and care they need to live strong, healthy lives and fulfill their dreams.”
The resolution stated that “Planned Parenthood health care providers and staff have played important roles in increasing access to safe and legal abortion, and have successfully advocated for measures that increase access to birth control, including the Affordable Care Act requirement that private insurance plans provide coverage for birth control with no-out of-pocket costs.”
The resolution also claimed that “breakthroughs in women’s health care, such as the legalization and expanded availability of birth control, have been named one of the biggest economic advancements for women in the past 100 years.”
“From Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, this country is healthier because of Planned Parenthood,” Wyden said upon introducing the resolution. “My Democratic colleagues and I are going to keep working to make sure this bedrock health provider can keep serving people for the next 100 years.”
The resolution is cosponsored by 18 of Wyden’s Democratic colleagues in the Senate.