Pro-choice activists will stage a rally Thursday at 4:30 p.m. outside the Fort Vancouver Public Library, 1007 E. Mill Plain Blvd, to protest U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s vote last month in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood. The vote, which came as House Republicans deliberated on a budget continuing resolution, would bar the nonprofit organization from receiving federal funds for cancer screenings, birth control, HIV testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. Federal law already prohibits the use of federal money to fund abortions. The continuing resolution also would eliminate all federal funding for family planning.
“Congresswoman Herrera Beutler ran on creating jobs for the people of the 3rd Congressional District,” said Dana Laurent, Political Director for Planned Parenthood Votes! Washington, which was organizing the rally. Defunding family planning services and Planned Parenthood “will actually cost Washington State millions of dollars and remove access to basic preventive health care for women who need it,” she said. “This is a politically motivated vote, pure and simple.”
