Heller should be ashamed

By Donna West, Las Vegas

Sunday, April 30, 2017 | 2 a.m.

As a supporter of Planned Parenthood, I decided I wanted to talk directly to Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.

Since Heller hasn’t had any public town halls recently in Las Vegas, I traveled to Reno to attend his town hall there on Monday.

I asked him if he knew that Southern Nevada had led the nation in the outbreak of sexually transmitted infections in the past three years, and I noted that Planned Parenthood was on the frontline of testing for and treating STIs.

Many people asked about Planned Parenthood, and Heller assured the room that he would protect Planned Parenthood and had no problems with the organization’s federal funding.

The senator has a long record in Washington of attacking Planned Parenthood, but I hoped that we’d finally broken through to him after months of public pressure.

The very next day, Heller revealed that he lied to us. His office said he still didn’t support Planned Parenthood because the organization provides access to abortions.

Planned Parenthood serves 18,000 patients in Nevada, and safe and legal abortions account for just 3 percent of its services. Those services are funded privately and can’t be supported with federal dollars under the Hyde Amendment.

Heller knew all of this when he blatantly lied to our faces. I’m so insulted that he’s going back on a public pledge to 600 of his own constituents. I can promise that we will remember this in 2018.