Response to Sue Lani

Sue Lani Madsen (June 22, “The rural and urban fear tactic”) has found a way to get lost in the forest because she is focusing on the trees. She chatters on about rural and urban, low income and no income, and goes into great depth about various government definitions and other minutiae. What she is missing is the forest – the regulation that the administration is trying to use to limit the options your health care provider can give you.

A referral to a “full-service primary care provider” is great if you have health insurance and an

undetermined illness or other medical complication. If all you need is a birth control method, why should you be forced to use a clinic or a hospital that is not your first choice? More than half of Planned Parenthood patients have no other health care provider. More than 95% of Planned Parenthood clients come for non-abortion care.

Free health care is available if necessary. It is the nation’s leader in offering varieties of birth control that consider all of a patient’s risk factors in prescribing the safest and best method.

Ms. Madsen wants “tangible support for couples planning families.” This is precisely what Planned Parenthood provides.

Florence Young

Spokane