MADISON, Wis. — News broke this week that Planned Parenthood Wisconsin is pausing abortion services, due directly to Republican Congressman and candidate for governor Tom Tiffany casting a crucial vote to pass the Republican budget bill that targets Planned Parenthood and attacks abortion access.
“It hasn’t even been 48 hours since Tom Tiffany announced his run for governor in Wisconsin, and one of his many terrible votes is already catching up to him,” said Lucy Ripp, communications director at A Better Wisconsin Together. “And it’s costing Wisconsinites, the people he wants to represent in our highest statewide office, access to essential reproductive health care services.”
Under the measure Tiffany voted for, no organization that provides abortion care could be reimbursed by Medicaid for any health care services. Under the law, reimbursement for abortion care is already prohibited. That means that Planned Parenthood could be barred from being paid through Medicaid for providing services like cancer and STD screenings, contraception, and more to tens of thousands of Wisconsinites
This is not the first time Tom Tiffany has shown his extremism on abortion care and reproductive health care providers. As a state legislator, he voted to prevent funds for non-abortion health care services from going to organizations like Planned Parenthood that also provided abortion care. Now as a federal legislator Tiffany has sponsored legislation to impose a dangerous abortion ban, in addition to financially targeting abortion care providers.
Ripp concluded,”Tom Tiffany can spin and dodge questions about his position on our freedom to make our own medical decisions. But his actions and his votes reveal the truth – he’s a right-wing extremist politician who wants to put himself in charge of medical decisions patients should be making and he’s willing to use the government to attack perceived opponents.”
