Letter to the Editor: Harmful to women’s health care

To the Editor:

As a Congressional candidate, Ashley Hinson will continue to harm Iowa’s women and women’s access to health care.

In a League of Women Voters’ forum January 21, 2017 Hinson stated that when she moved to Linn County she wasn’t able to get into an OB-GYN and relied on Planned Parenthood for her health care needs. In the same forum she also stated, “the government should typically stay out of women’s healthcare decisions”.

Yet, as a state legislator, Hinson repeatedly inserted her harmful votes into the lives of Iowa’s women. She also stated she wasn’t going to vote to make it harder for women to get healthcare services, yet, that is exactly what her votes have done.

Despite her own use of Planned Parenthood’s services for health care, she voted numerous times to take that same access away from Iowa’s women. She is making access to health care more difficult for Iowa’s women and endangering those in need of services relating to reproductive health. Hinson supported House File 653 in 2017, which essentially defunded Planned Parenthood in Iowa by blocking State funding for agencies that include abortion services. In the latest State session, Hinson voted to cut funding used to provide comprehensive sex education to Iowans.

Hinson has had the opportunity to be a voice for women and women’s health care needs in the state and, sadly, she has fallen short and fallen in line with her party and voted against Iowa’s women.

Lori Egan
Waukon