As Berkley Co-Sponsors Bill to End Breast Cancer, Heller Restricts Access to Cancer Screenings

Las Vegas, NV – Today, Shelley Berkley announced she is co-sponsoring legislation that will work to end breast cancer by 2020.  In contrast to Berkley’s efforts to end breast cancer by the end of the decade and increase women’s access to preventative healthcare, Senator Dean Heller has repeatedly voted to slash funding for programs that provide women access to breast and cervical cancer screenings while voting to protect taxpayer giveaways to corporations that ship American jobs overseas and Big Oil companies making record profits.

·         Heller has voted multiple times to end funding that Planned Parenthood uses to perform preventative, life-saving procedures critical to women’s health – including breast cancer exams and mammogram referrals. 

·         Just this year, Heller voted for the Blunt Amendment, legislation that would have restricted women’s access to contraception, mammograms, and cervical cancer screenings.  If passed, the Blunt Amendment could cost potentially 170,000 women in Nevada access to preventative healthcare. 

·         This week, he joined Washington Republicans in holding Nevada students hostage to a student loan rate hike on July 1^stunless the extension of the current rates is paid for by gutting funding for women’s health services like breast and cervical cancer screenings.

“While Shelley Berkley is fighting to eliminate breast cancer by the end of the decade, Dean Heller is voting to slash funding for breast cancer screenings and mammogram referrals at the same time he’s voting to protect taxpayer giveaways to Washington special interests like Big Oil executives making record profits," said Nevada State Democratic Party spokesperson Zach Hudson.  “Those are the wrong priorities.  Nevada’s women know they can count on leaders like Shelley Berkley, who has a track record of prioritizing Nevada families ahead of Wall Street corporations shipping American jobs overseas.”