Thank You, Congressman Ribble, From Nine Million Women And Their Babies

Guest author Lon Newman, is president Wisconsin’s Family Planning Health Services, which administers the federally funded WIC program in Wisconsin, a nutrition program that helps families feed their children healthy foods.  

WIC provides nutrition information, healthy foods, and help accessing health care to middle and low-income families. The program is available to families with pregnant women, new mothers (breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding), and children under the age of five.

A prolonged government shutdown would have close down WIC, leaving the women and children who rely on the program without fresh milk and nutritious food.

Here is an insider’s view on what transpired when the clinic director turned to two of the state’s Republican congressmen for help:

 

 

Congressman Reid Ribble (R-Sherwood) voted to end the government shutdown and has been criticized for breaking with the tea party activists. He said his vote was for reason over emotion and that it was time to reopen the government.

The chair and vice-chair of my agency, as well as our director of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) met with our own congressman, Sean Duffy (R-Weston), Monday, October 14th.  We explained to the congressman’s staff that in the 7th congressional district there are 15,000 WIC mothers and babies whose health was being jeopardized by the shutdown.  He knew that the WIC program protects half of all newborns from malnutrition and starvation and that approximately 24% of the WIC newborns in our area are born prematurely –putting them at even higher risk without special formula that can cost $300-600/month for a young low-income family.

But unlike Congressman Ribble, (right) who based his vote on information and understanding, Congressman Duffy put himself on a national stage to make arguments for the shutdown based on misinformation and misunderstanding.  For example, Representative Duffy argued that President Obama and employees of the administration and Congress should be “On Obamacare,” even though they already have employer-paid insurance and do not need to shop for other insurance coverage.

Congressman Duffy also loudly made a weak argument for “equal treatment under the law,” suggesting that because corporations have been given a delay on penalties  for not offering health insurance, individuals should be also be given a delay.  His ‘equal treatment’ rationale overlooks adverse selection and fundamental realities:

• Corporations are not denied health care due to preexisting conditions.
• Corporations do not have chronic diabetes or heart disease.
• Corporations do not have to choose between eating and taking their medications.
• Corporations do not show up in emergency rooms.

Simply put, corporations are NOT people.

Congressman Sean Duffy’s vote, based on weak reasoning and misinformation, can’t even be justified on partisan grounds. After the Speaker put the vote on the floor of the House floor, bringing the shutdown to an end, Congressman Duffy (right) voted against the Republican Speaker to continue the shutdown.

Sean Duffy, by his words and by his vote, has renounced his claim to care for the unborn, for pregnant women, for babies, for infants, or for toddlers.

The congressman is welcome to say he is anti-abortion. He may say he is opposed to contraception.  But when he was given a clear choice between feeding pregnant women and their children and dancing with the tea party, he danced.

Thank you, Congressman Ribble, from nine million women and their babies.

 

Lon Newman is President of the Family Planning Health Services, Inc, and the Women’s Health Network of WI, Inc.

Family Planning Health Services, Inc. (FPHS) provides high quality, affordable and accessible reproductive and nutritional services to women and their families. FPHS serves women and their partners in need by providing low-cost contraceptive care. They also provide young people with confidential reproductive health care as well as sexuality education for prevention and treatment.

FPHS helps pregnant women in need of prenatal care and nutritional education, and their young children who need nutritional food supplements. They promote ideals that knowledge of sexuality is preferable to ignorance and that prevention and health promotion are the means of achieving our purposes for people of all ages and incomes. The FPHS mission embraces an ongoing commitment to gender equity, community health promotion and community progress.

 

Reps Ribble and Duffy photos from Facebook