Harris challenges Easton Planned Parenthood

Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland said Tuesday Planned Parenthood is “denying women’s health care” on the lower Eastern Shore by keeping its Easton facility open only two days a week - information the organization says is out of date.

Planned Parenthood says its Easton site was previously a part-time facility but is now open five days a week. But Harris said during a House floor speech that the clinic is offering “bankers’ hours” or is closed.

“The center in Easton, funded with federal dollars, is open two days a week,” Harris said. “That clinic is empty the rest of the time. Federal dollars paying for an empty clinic that doesn’t deliver comprehensive care.”

Until last spring, the Easton facility was open Mondays and Thursdays and the Salisbury facility was open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, said Amina Chaudhry, interim president & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Maryland. Planned Parenthood closed its Salisbury site in late April and consolidated it with its Easton location, which is now operating full-time. While Planned Parenthood’s website reflects its correct hours, the Google search results that Harris used does not – a problem Planned Parenthood has been working to correct with Google.

“Rather than scheduling patients part-time at both Salisbury and Easton, we are now able to schedule patients full time at our larger Easton location and offer an increase in health care services,” Chaudhry said in a statement. “On May 2, 2015, we began full time clinic hours at Easton, offering patients five days a week for appointments."

Harris’ comments came during a House floor speech on legislation - later approved - to withhold Medicaid payments from Planned Parenthood and other health care providers that perform abortions. Use of Medicaid money for abortion services was already prohibited by federal law, except in cases of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is in jeopardy.

The White House said Monday Obama will veto the bill if it also passes the Senate, which is unlikely.

During his speech, Harris, an obstetric anesthesiologist, said Planned Parenthood can’t offer comprehensive health care services because they don’t offer mammograms. He made a case for community health care centers, which he said are offering comprehensive medical services such as mammograms.

“This tells women ‘You don’t have to go to the Monday-and-Thursday-only clinic that can’t give you a mammogram,’” Harris said. “You can actually go get comprehensive care somewhere else, even if you’re on Medicaid.”

Republicans have targeted Planned Parenthood funding following the release of videos this summer suggesting that officials in the group discussed selling fetal tissue from abortions. The organization’s president told lawmakers during a hearing Tuesday the videos are fraudulent and distort the organization’s work and tissue donation practices. Democrats say the organization provides necessary preventive health care services, particularly for low-income women.

Harris rejected the idea that the films were doctored and said their practices should be “so morally objectionable” that states should be allowed to limit the organization’s funding.

“I guess if selling baby body parts is what’s important about women’s health care, then you’re right,” he said. “You’ve got to go to a Planned Parenthood to get it.”

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Contributing: Erin Kelly and Paul Singer, USA TODAY

Contact Nicole Gaudiano at ngaudiano@gannett.com.

Follow @ngaudiano.