Women's health care advocates in Missouri are bracing for potentially severe reproductive care consequences as the state patches together plans to fund the Women's Health Services Program. Some other states that rejected federal money in an effort to punish Planned Parenthood saw a rise in maternal mortality rates, unintended pregnancies and HIV transmission.

Legislators intent on pursuing personal political agendas are going to cause a lot of needless suffering. Women who depend on Planned Parenthood and other participating providers for important medical care will see reduced service availability because federal funds are being cut off.

The Legislature in April passed a budget that rejected more than $8.3 million in Medicaid funding the state was due to receive for family planning, sexually transmitted disease testing and pelvic exams at county health departments, clinics and Planned Parenthood offices.

Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, spearheaded the effort to strip public money from Planned Parenthood, the country's largest abortion provider. His effort is part of a national conservative movement that seeks to distort Planned Parenthood's primary health-service mission and focus on the small portion of services related to abortions.

Federal law prohibits use of government money for non-emergency abortions, and the funding was used only to provide health care for women who receive Medicaid. States are prohibited from blocking Medicaid dollars from abortion providers for services such as vaccinations and cancer screenings. In turning down the federal funding and replacing it from Missouri's general revenue fund, state lawmakers specified that none of it could go to organizations that provide abortions.

In Texas, where lawmakers targeted Planned Parenthood and slashed funding for reproductive care clinics, the maternal mortality rate doubled between 2011 and 2012. How's that "pro-life"?

The cuts forced closure of more than 80 family planning clinics. Remaining facilities were able to provide low-cost or free birth control, cancer screening and well-woman exams to only half as many women as previous.

When conservative political forces in Indiana gutted Planned Parenthood's public funding, forcing the organization to close clinics, citizens in Scott County had nowhere to go for HIV testing and education. They now face an unprecedented HIV outbreak that Republican Gov. Mike Pence characterized as an "epidemic."

Planned Parenthood provides health care and education to more than 50,000 men and women in Missouri. The organization says other federally qualified providers will not be able to easily take care of more than 7,000 Medicaid patients cared for by Planned Parenthood.

The health organization will continue serving Medicaid patients while the state Department of Social Services devises plans to suspend the Women's Health Services Program and replace it with state funding.

Missouri legislators owe it to their constituents to understand the full range of crucial services Planned Parenthood provides, and stop punishing poor women in an effort to score political points.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH