PATIENT STORY

For close to ten years, I have and continue to take advantage of family planning and routine health services at Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, including yearly checkups, contraception and other important tests and services.

I have relied on the discounted and free services when I was working as a young waitress with no health insurance. Again, when I was working for a non-profit organization with limited health insurance that did not cover family planning gynecological services, and again, when I went back to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University and could not afford the co-pays of visits and medicines with my insurance. I currently have finished my master's degree and continue to work serving my community in Allegheny County Department of Human Services.

I will continue to attend Planned Parenthood because it is a quality program that is important for all women, regardless of income. Without the discounts that Title X allows Planned Parenthood to pass on to me, I know that I would not have received the care that I did or the services that I did. I simply could not afford them during those periods of my life, but now that I can, I have not forgotten what they have done for me and what they do for so many women in my community.

I urge Congress not to take this important health care away from women. The costs of unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and other gynecological problems that go untreated will certainly replace the cost of Title X funding if these services are not available to those with low-income.

-Alexis M, Polish Hill, Pittsburgh