Rhetoric vs. Reality: The Wisconsin GOP Hurts Wisconsin Women
In 2015, they voted to turn down millions in federal funding for women's health providers.
MADISON – Yesterday, members of the Assembly Republican Caucus led by Rep. Ed Brooks (R-Reedsburg), announced part of their Rural Wisconsin Initiative to address Wisconsin’s healthcare shortage, highlighting a lack of women’s health services. The proposal, introduced three weeks before the election, starkly contrasts with several pieces of legislation passed by Assembly Republicans over the last five years that led to the closure of five rural health centers and made it harder for rural Wisconsin women to access basic health services.
“It is absolutely incredible to hear Rep. Brooks and my colleagues across the aisle talk about improving women’s healthcare when they are the very ones who made it harder for Wisconsin women to access care in the first place. Do they not remember closing five rural women’s health centers? Do they not remember stripping millions more from health centers this session that provided health services like mammograms and cervical cancer screenings? Do they not remember voting against studying Wisconsin’s reproductive healthcare shortage?” Taylor asked.
In 2011, Brooks and several of his GOP colleagues voted to cut over $1 million dollars from health care providers serving rural counties and five rural health centers in Wisconsin closed as a result. In 2015, they again voted to turn down millions in federal funding for women’s health providers while cutting funds for birth control from health centers supported by local health departments.
“Every single one of these members voted against Wisconsin women every single time they were asked to by radical right-wing special interest groups. It is completely disingenuous for Rep. Brooks and his colleagues to roll out this proposal eight months after the Legislature adjourned and act like it’s a top priority. They should be ashamed of themselves. Wisconsin women deserve better,” Taylor concluded.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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Nice spin!
“Cutting $1 million dollars from health care providers serving rural counties.”
Did that not happen? Who is actually spinning here?