The first time I visited the Baltimore City Health Department’s Druid Clinic, I was 17. I wasn’t going to the clinic for myself. A friend had told me she thought she was pregnant but was too nervous to go to the clinic to take a test alone, so I offered to go with her. When we arrived she was still nervous, so I offered to take a test as well.

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On Monday, at our Druid Health Clinic, doctors and nurses stood with Mayor Catherine Pugh and our entire Baltimore City federal delegation – Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Representatives Elijah Cummings, Dutch Ruppersberger, and John Sarbanes – to voice our strong opposition to the Trump Administration’s proposed changes to Title X family planning services. These changes will hurt four million people, many of whom already bear the brunt of health disparities and inequities, including women of color and low-income individuals.

With 175 Americans dying each day from drug overdoses, the opioid crisis is akin to “a plane crashing every day,” Mayor Catherine Pugh said on Friday as she and other Baltimore officials urged Congress to approve comprehensive legislation to combat the epidemic.

Cummings and Warren, both Democrats, sought to use the forum — nationally televised by C-SPAN — to promote legislation that would provide $100 billion over 10 years for services to combat substance use disorders. It is modeled after 1990’s Ryan White Act that provided billions of federal dollars to combat the AIDS crisis. 

“This is what we on the front lines have been asking for,” said Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, who moderated the panel.

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House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings and Senator Elizabeth Warren hold a roundtable with congressional colleagues, Baltimore officials, and community representatives to discuss the city’s opioid crisis.

View a recording of the roundtable from CSPAN.