O’Scanlon Calls Shenanigans On Dems’ “War on Women”

“Women’s Healthcare Options Open, Available and Accessible”

Photo Credit: Dave Lewis, LewisArtandPhoto.com

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) called out his colleague, Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin (D- Newark) for continuing to perpetrate the myth that New Jersey short changes funding for women’s healthcare.

“I count at least seven line items where we put money to women’s healthcare, including $135 million for family health services to provide prenatal and perinatal care for expectant mothers and their children,” said O’Scanlon. “The results of the Republican investment in women’s healthcare speak for themselves. New Jersey is in the top five States with the lowest STD rates in the country. Other states look to New Jersey as a model for STD prevention.” O’Scanlon also pointed out that the Democrats have failed to provide any additional funding for Family Planning Services in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget they passed last June.”

O’Scanlon and Pintor Marin, both members of the Assembly Budget Committe, has a collegial exchange on the issue during Monday’s Budget Committee hearing during which Pintor Marin admitted that she did not know of any constituent who could not access healthcare. Following the hearing Pintor Marin issue a press release calling O’Scanlon and his fellow Republicans “out of touch” for defending cuts to women’s health services and calling for healthcare services for women who are not asking for it.

“Assemblyman O’Scanlon is not only out-of-touch with the diversity of New Jersey’s landscape, but essentially he’s saying that it’s perfectly acceptable if a woman has to jump through a million bureaucratic hurdles to access healthcare,” Pintor Marin said.

“We know for a fact that at least six women’s health clinics have closed since Gov. Christie began eliminating this funding and others have been forced to scale back their hours. This has had a demonstrable impact on low-income women who rely on these clinics for routine health services because my office has received numerous calls from women looking for help finding replacement services.

“While we may have been successful in helping redirect many of these women to the services they desperately need, that doesn’t account for the many women who have not reached out to us who are left to fend for themselves, unsure of whether there are alternative sources of health care.

“This is the type of rhetoric that has been used by Republicans across the country in justifying their decisions to limit access to women’s health centers for ideological reasons.”

“If there are any women who have trouble accessing care, please call my office,” responded O’Scanlon, the Republican Budget Officer. “It is stunning to me how some Democrats can convince themselves into believing there is zero funding for women’s healthcare in New Jersey’s budget. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“While certainly there is somebody out of touch in this state, it isn’t me. One need look no further than Assemblywoman Pintor Marin’s own words to make my point. This morning, when asked directly if she came across even one constituent who couldn’t access the healthcare they needed, she answered, ‘No.’ I rest my case,” concluded O’Scanlon.