“I just came to get checked because something — I felt something was wrong, and I did end up finding out what it was.”

Congressman Ryan, we realize that you may not have spent much time in Planned Parenthood clinics, so these patients wanted to fill you in on what happens in these clinics. Initially, some patients were embarrassed to speak on video, for these are deeply personal medical issues and some feared that their parents (or children!) might judge them promiscuous or immoral. Yet they stepped up as a public service: As Adriana Numo put it, referring to the trauma of a sexually transmitted infection: “I don’t want anyone else to go through it.”

They are being responsible, and they want Congress and the Trump administration to be as well — by providing medical care that is critically needed. Mr. Ryan, you and other Republicans say that other clinics could provide family planning services, but just look at the Planned Parenthood clinics in your own district! For two of them, there’s no other general provider of family planning or women’s health services for Medicaid patients in the entire county. There is no alternative, not even in your own district!

I hope you’ll listen to Jenna Bardwell, 20, who found out that she is pregnant and plans to keep the baby. “I’m nervous to expose my identity,” she told me, “but I think supporting such an organization, especially when it’s under threat, is very important because it helps scared 20-year-olds like me.”

Speaker Ryan, you and I may disagree about abortion, but we agree that cervical cancer and breast cancer shouldn’t kill young women, that family planning should be available, that sexually transmitted infections should be treated. Look around your own district, and it’s Planned Parenthood that is providing those desperately needed services.

What these patients are trying to tell you, Congressman Ryan, is that Planned Parenthood is their lifeline, sometimes literally saving their lives — and yet you’re trying to close those clinics!

Please, Speaker Ryan, reconsider your position, and listen to your own constituents. Thanks for hearing them out.