title:  House GOP Holds Zika Bill Hostage, Proposes Plan To Slash Birth Control Funding
text: Pregnant women throughout the America s are threatened by the Zika virus, but House Republicans couldn t care less and are still holding the bill that would fight the epidemic hostage. The GOP released their latest funding proposal on Wednesday and the plan proposes cuts to the federal grant that helps low-income women access birth control and other family planning services.The Title X Family Planning program, which was established more than 45 years ago, provides reproductive healthcare services to 4.1 million patients each year, preventing approximately 1 million unplanned pregnancies. So naturally, conservatives are hell bent on eliminating Title X.The Huffington Post reports:  The House Appropriations Committee proposed cutting the program in its draft Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies funding bill for fiscal year 2017. This is the fifth time Republicans have attempted to scrap Title X. Under the GOP proposal, $108 million would be cut from programs that focus on preventing teen pregnancies.The funding bill does allocate $390 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fight the Zika virus, but women s health advocates warn that the middle of a Zika outbreak is not the time to cut funding for contraception. Zika can be transmitted both through mosquitos and sexually. Women who become infected with the virus while pregnant can have babies born with severe birth defects, including microcephaly. Babies born with microcephaly have malformed brains and abnormally small heads, and they face a lifetime of challenges.Clare Coleman, president of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, said that cutting funding smack dab in the middle of the Zika outbreak would be  particularly foolish. It is particularly foolish to target Title X at a time when the nation is at the precipice of a public health emergency resulting from the Zika virus. For the House to propose defunding the very provider network that is being called upon to address and control the risk to women who may be seeking to prevent pregnancy is absurd.Republicans in Congress have such a dislike for Title X because some of its funding goes to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions among its range of services. None of that money pays for abortions, however, and federal law already prevents these grants from being used to fund abortions.According to a statement released by House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the goal of the funding bill is to reduc[e] discretionary spending by more than half a billion dollars, all the while prioritizing funding where it is needed the most. It follows the responsible lead of the legislation before it   investing in proven, effective programs, rolling back over regulation and overreach by the Administration that kills American jobs, and cutting spending to save hard earned taxpayer dollars.Last month, the House passed a funding proposal for Zika that also limits access to contraception. This completely ignores the request by the CDC for money to distribute birth control and condoms in areas stricken by Zika.Dana Singiser, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, called the bill  shameful. Politicians who want to eliminate these vital services are working against a solution, and are part of the problem. Today s budget bill is shameful and exposes the Republican leadership s targeted agenda against family planning providers like Planned Parenthood, despite their absolutely critical role in limiting the damaging effects of Zika virus and continuing to provide access to reproductive health services for those most in need.Since last year, 24 states have tried to defund Planned Parenthood. Many of the states that are expected to be hardest hit by Zika as temperatures rise and mosquitos flourish are also states where  lawmakers have slashed family planning services, chipped away at safe and legal abortion and declined to expand Medicaid coverage. Featured image via Mario Tama/Getty Images