Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will close 4 of its 27 clinics by this July. The move was prompted by past budget cuts in the state’s family planning program.
The Planned Parenthood clinics that will close offered cancer and STD screenings along with contraceptives, but not abortions. Despite that, Wisconsin Right to Life president Barbara Lyons says those clinics could have made referrals for abortion. In 2011, her group lobbied lawmakers to cut nearly a million dollars in state money for Planned Parenthood.
“Wisconsin Right to Life was promoting and supporting efforts to cut funding from Planned Parenthood in the last biennial budget in Wisconsin. We don’t see why taxpayers should be subsidizing this organization.”
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State law prevents the use of taxpayer funds for abortion. The four Planned Parenthood clinics that will close are in Beaver Dam, Johnson Creek, Chippewa Falls and Shawano. Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Nicole Safir says about 2,000 women will have to go elsewhere for low cost cancer screenings and birth control.
“We have provided them with information about the next closest family planning provider, which in all four cases is a Planned Parenthood center.”
Safir says some women will have to drive to another county, an hour away, to get reproductive health care.
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