SFMS Champions Public Funding of Family Planning Services; Asks Physicians Statewide for Support September 29, 2015 Advocacy, SFMS Member Title X, House of Delegates, Planned Parenthood, reproductive health 0 SFMS has been a state and national leader in advocating for women’s reproductive health and choice, including access to all medical-indicated services. The SFMS delegation has submitted a resolution to the 2015 annual meeting of the California Medical Association (CMA) House of Delegates (HOD) asking for support for full funding of Planned Parenthood and Title X Family Planning Services. The resolution is posted below and also on the CMA HOD page for CMA/SFMS member comment. Each year, physicians from all 53 California counties, representing all specialties and modes of practice, meet to discuss issues related to medical practice, public health, health economics and finance—and much more. The import of this is that these policies guide CMA and AMA lobbying—and those are powerful presences in Sacramento and Washington. Our efforts have positively impacted countless patients and physician practices, and that’s why we persist. Resolution No. 212-15 WHEREAS, the CMA HOD has in recent years adopted policy resolutions calling for mandated coverage of contraception, increased use of medical abortion where appropriate, endorsement of effective sex education/contraception programs, and opposing any political interference in the discussion and provision of approved medical services; and, WHEREAS, currently many politicians are advocating the defunding of Planned Parenthood and Title X Family Planning Funding to the degree that they threaten to shut down the national government over this issue, based upon their opposition to abortion and heightened most recently by deceptively filmed and edited videos from Planned Parenthood clinicians discussing fetal tissue research; and, WHEREAS, the services provided by Planned Parenthood and Title X are overwhelmingly non-abortion services that are often contraceptive and educational services which prevent unplanned pregnancy and abortion, so that defunding such services would most likely result in more unplanned pregnancies and more and later abortions; and, WHEREAS, the provision of fetal tissue for research, which is most likely to provide many benefits in the long run, including for children, cannot be done for profit by law, and there is no evidence that Planned Parenthood has profited from providing fetal tissue to researchers; and, WHEREAS, the large majority of Americans strongly support the provision and public funding of such services; therefore be it, RESOLVED: That CMA supports full funding of Planned Parenthood and Title X Family Planning services to both prevent and provide abortions, as well as providing many other essential health services, and opposes the politicization of abortion and fetal tissue research; and be it further, RESOLVED: That this matter be referred for national action (to AMA). Comments are closed.
