Walker made it a top priority to cut funding by $1 million for Planned Parenthood, forcing the closure of four health centers and blocking at least 12,000 Wisconsin women from their only source of preventative and medical care. He denied thousands access to birth control, cancer screenings, annual exams, and sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has 27 health centers across the state providing crucial health services to 73,000 patients every year. Less than 1 percent of the clinics in the state offer abortion-related care services. Walker’s cuts hit the hardest in small communities where family planning services rely primarily on state funding.
Undoubtedly, women across the state are asking themselves just how far the governor will go in his harmful agenda if re-elected in 2014.
“Given Governor Walker’s troubling record on women’s health up to this point, it’s not far-fetched to think that he will pursue an even more destructive anti-women agenda if he wins re-election,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Melissa Baldauff said on Thursday.”Since Walker keeps trying to hide from taking the issue head on, women in Wisconsin are left to wonder just how far he go in his crusade to annihilate the health infrastructure in the state.”
