Last night, CNN hosted a health care town hall with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to discuss the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the health care plan Price and other Republican legislators proposed to replace Obamacare. During the event, a New York resident named Katie Needle used part of her question time to criticize Republicans for including a provision that would defund Planned Parenthood, which provides important health services for many Medicaid participants.

Needle, a Medicaid enrollee, laid out her frustrations with the bill's proposal, which would limit basic health care access for many Medicaid participants. "I'm a Planned Parenthood patient and I'd be absolutely devastated if Planned Parenthood were defunded," she said. She cited current laws in Texas, where legislators have severely cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which have led to many women losing access to health care. "More women's health centers didn't just magically appear because Planned Parenthood was defunded—that just doesn't happen," she said.

The AHCA provision would cut Medicaid funding to any health care center that provides abortions, including Planned Parenthood, which serves more than 2.5 million patients each year. Sixty percent of those patients rely on public health programs (like Medicaid and Title X) for access to vital health care services. Nearly 400,000 Pap smears, 500,000 breast exams, 88,000 cancer screenings, and 4.5 million STI tests and treatments are performed by Planned Parenthood every year.

Needle continued, mentioning that earlier in the town hall, Price had "complained about" how only one third of doctors were accepting Medicaid under Obamacare. "[The AHCA] chooses to cut [Planned Parenthood]—a provider that sees over a million Medicaid patients every year," she said. "So if that's your big problem with Obamacare, how does that make any sense? … How do you expect the millions of low-income women nationwide who depend on Planned Parenthood for these vital human services—basic needs—to access these things if Planned Parenthood is defunded?"

As Needle pointed out, provider options are already limited for people who receive insurance through Medicaid. And cutting funding to Planned Parenthood would only further restrict their access to health care. "Many communities rely on Planned Parenthood for birth control, cancer screenings, and other vital preventive care," Willie Parker, M.D., Physicians for Reproductive Health board chairman, tells SELF. "For people who rely on Medicaid coverage and already face obstacles to getting health care, removing Planned Parenthood as an option would put essential health services further out of reach."

Watch Needle's video below.

If you want to make sure that Congress doesn't repeal the Affordable Care Act without a suitable replacement already in place, there's still time to make your voice heard. SELF's resources on finding activist opportunities and getting involved in policy decisions are great places to start. If you're passionate about women's access to reproductive healthcare in particular, you can also consider: donating to the Center for Reproductive Rights, volunteering for NARAL Pro-Choice America, donating to the Reproductive Health Access Project, or volunteering for Planned Parenthood. Other organizations can help families in need access affordable childcare, job training, and much-needed food and household supplies.

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