A day after he explicitly vowed to cut its funding, volunteers for Planned Parenthood made their way to House Speaker Paul Ryan's office to deliver over 85,000 petitions in support of the health provider. But once they got there, they tweeted that they were turned away at the door.
"I stand with Planned Parenthood, and for every person's fundamental right to affordable quality health care, the right to plan our families and our futures, and the right to protect our health and our lives.," the petition, which is available on the Planned Parenthood website, reads.
On Thursday, Ryan told reporters that the GOP's efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act will include measures to effectively strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood. As Fusion has previously reported, this could limit access to health services for over 600,000 people, particularly poorer people and people with little access to other healthcare providers.
After reportedly being denied access to Ryan's office, Planned Parenthood said the volunteers delivered the petitions to the office of Representative Gwen Moore (D-WI).
In October of 2015, Moore–who, like Ryan, is also a representative from Wisconsin–took to the House floor to defend Planned Parenthood.
This isn't the first time Planned Parenthood advocates have stood up for the organization in recent months. Just days after Donald Trump was elected president, supporters began making donations to the group in the name of Vice president-elect Mike Pence—a notorious Planned Parenthood enemy. In December, The Cut reported that Planned Parenthood had received over 82,000 individual donations in the name of Pence, who Politico once called a “one-man crusade” against the service provider. Since the election, Planned Parenthoods around the country have reported huge increases in demand for IUDs.
I have reached out to Ryan's office for comment. I will update this post if I hear back.