Advocates celebrate $500,000 in City funding for Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania and a resolution to establish a Reproductive Freedom Task Force.
PHILADELPHIA – Today, Minority Leader Kendra Brooks announced a grant of $500,000 in municipal funding for Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, marking the first time that the City of Philadelphia is directly funding Planned Parenthood. Combined with $450,000 in funding to address period poverty and access to reproductive care for low-income Philadelphians, Leader Brooks secured nearly a million dollars of municipal funding to support patients and providers of reproductive healthcare in Philadelphia.
“This is the first time that city funding is going directly to our local branch of Planned Parenthood, and it’s part of a larger, record-setting allocation of nearly a million dollars for reproductive healthcare citywide,” said Minority Leader Kendra Brooks (At-Large). “Planned Parenthood is vital to so many working families, and their work ensures that women have a safe place to access a range of healthcare services. We must do everything in our power locally, across the state, and nationally to ensure that abortion providers remain open – and safe – in the communities where they serve.”
“Maintaining and expanding access to abortion services in a post-Roe landscape – where now 22 states have abortion bans – remains one of our top priorities,” said Dayle Steinberg, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania. “The right to make your own decision about your body and your life is so fundamental, so basic. We stand firm in our belief that sexual and reproductive healthcare are fundamental rights, and we refuse to back down in the face of adversity.”
“Our patients’ difficulties accessing care are so often rooted in financial struggle,” said Dr. Sameera Mokkarala, an OB/GYN and family planning physician who practices in Philadelphia. “With Pennsylvania being a Hyde Amendment state, where the majority of our Medicaid patients still cannot use their insurance to cover abortion services, the cost of care to our patients has always been a problem. This is especially true post-Dobbs, with people traveling to Pennsylvania from as far as Texas in order to receive the care they cannot get in their home states. As such, I applaud and thank Councilmember Brooks for her unwavering support and commitment to this cause, and for helping us do what we do best: meet our patients where they’re at, and provide them exceptional care without exception.”
Minority Leader Brooks also introduced a resolution today in City Council to establish a Reproductive Freedom Task Force. The Task Force is made up of patients, providers, city agencies, and stakeholders who will work together to protect and increase access to abortion and reproductive healthcare in Philadelphia. The task force was first introduced as part of a Reproductive Freedom Package, co-sponsored by Minority Leader Brooks, Councilmember Gauthier, and former Councilmember Helen Gym in 2022 after the overturn of Roe v Wade. With the support of Mayor Cherelle Parker, the task force is expected to launch later this year.
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