Joni Ernst

194 Federal Building

320 Sixth Street

Sioux City, IA 51101

Dear Mrs. Ernst,

My name is Griselda Oliveros. Recently, I have seen the topic of funding Planned Parenthood
trending. I thought it would be interesting to follow a piece of legislature that involves the funding
of Planned Parenthood. During my search I noticed that you are sponsoring the the bill S.241
Protect Funding for Womens Health Care Act. Your bill says that its purpose is to prohibit Federal
funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. My purpose in writing this letter is to oppose
this bill or to at least persuade you to change it. Hopefully as you read my letter you will feel
persuaded to, if not remove the bill, at least revise the wording and continue to allow some funding
to go to Planned Parenthood.

Personally I have never used their services but I think that they provide good services to the
community. Even though there is a general stigma that Planned Parenthood is a place to get
abortions, I think if we would educate the public about the other services they provide this would
not happen as often as it does. Which is different from going to other medical facilities were the
same services would not be as affordable as they are in Planned Parenthood. The reason why
services at Planned Parenthood are more affordable is because they offer a sliding-fee scale based
on income, household size and other factors.

Another aspect of your bill I noticed, in section 2. Findings, was that it only mentioned womens
health services. Did you know that Planned Parenthood also provides services for men? Although
they vary by location some of the services they provide for men are: checkups for reproductive or
sexual health problems, colon, prostate, and testicular cancer screenings, condoms and vasectomy,
erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation services, including education, exams, treatment,
and referral, general health care and routine physical exams, jock itch exam and treatment, male
infertility screening and referral, STD testing and treatment, urinary tract infections testing and
treatment. Which is why your bill should not focus on defunding the program but to look for an
alternative to fund it but restrict it from performing certain services if it is to receive Federal
funding.
 As you can tell Planned Parenthood does more than just provide women with abortions. It also helps
men to receive services that they would otherwise not get. Mrs. Ernst I obviously do not know about
how much knowledge you have about Planned Parenthood but I hope that my letter has at least
persuaded you to reconsider certain aspects of your bill.

I also wanted to thank you for being a good example to young Iowan women like myself. Being the
first woman to ever represent Iowa in either house of Congress must not have been an easy
position to accomplish. Being in that position inspires me to want to accomplish more than what I
originally thought I could. I appreciate you taking time to read my letter and hope to see your
response at your earliest convenience.

Warm regards,

Oliveros, Griselda

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