Federal Update: June 1st, 2017
by WREN Staff on Jun 1, 2017
A lot of decisions are being made in DC right now that could dramatically affect the health and well-being of South Carolina women, girls and their families. WREN is tracking how potential changes to the federal budget and the Affordable Care Act would impact our state. Read below to find out more and how you can use your voice to make a difference.
The proposed federal budget for 2018 would be devastating for the health and economic security of low-income women and their families. If adopted, it would slash support for Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance, housing assistance, food assistance (SNAP), and more. Join us in telling our South Carolina elected officials to support the well-being of families and to reject these dangerous budget cuts.
Here are some talking points to help you get started:
- Making cuts to Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance, housing, and food assistance only makes it harder for people, and specifically women, to get back on their feet.
- Rather than punishing women and families who are already facing economic hardship, Congress should instead focus on policies that help create jobs and boost wages.
- I support programs like Medicaid and SNAP because they help reduce the many barriers that South Carolinians face when seeking to build economic stability and healthy families.
- I appreciate your time and hope that you reject these dangerous budget cuts.
A plan is also in motion to roll back the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) birth control benefit, causing thousands of women to lose access to no-cost birth control coverage.
According to the National Women’s Law Center, the leaked draft would:
- Expand the exemption that currently applies to churches and other houses of worship to include any kind of employer with either moral or religious objections. Women working for such employers would lose their guarantee of no-cost birth control coverage.
- Create an exemption for colleges and universities with religious or moral objections. Students would lose their guarantee of no-cost birth control coverage.
- Create an exemption for health insurance companies that hold religious or moral objections.
- Create an exemption for individuals with religious or moral objections, so that the individual can obtain a separate policy that does not cover contraception, if the health insurance issuer agrees to provide it.
- Change the current “accommodation” for certain religiously affiliated employers from mandatory to optional. If an organization chooses to revoke its use of the accommodation, women will lose their guarantee of no-cost birth control coverage.
Please also consider making a call in support of family planning, and a woman’s access to the contraception she needs.
Here are some talking points to help you get started:
- Birth control access is already a burden for many women, and will become an even larger hurdle if the ACA birth control benefit is rolled back.
- Without this benefit, hundreds of thousands of women could lose access to no-cost birth control coverage.
- South Carolina has one of the highest unintended pregnancy rates in the country, and we should not be supporting a rollback that could worsen this reality.
- Ultimately, every woman deserves the right to the medical care and contraception she needs.
- I appreciate your time and hope you choose to support family planning and contraceptive access for all women.
In order to be most impactful, please contact both your Senator and Representative if you are able to do so.
Write to or call Senator Lindsey Graham’s office:
United States Senate 290 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC, 20510
(202) 224-5972
Write to or call Senator Tim Scott’s office:
United States Senate 717 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC, 20510
(202) 224-6121
Write to or call Representative Jim Clyburn
242 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202)225-3315
Write to or call Representative Jeff Duncan
2229 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5301
Write to or call Representative Trey Gowdy
1404 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-6030
Write to or call Representative Tom Rice
325 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-9895
Write to or call Representative Mark Sanford
322 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3176
Write to or call Representative Joe Wilson
2229 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2452