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Reed Talks Hot Topics At Crowded Town Hall Meeting

NORTH HARMONY – While the phrase “town hall meeting” brings to mind a few folks gathered in a dusty hall, today’s gathering was anything but.

A large crowd gathered outside the North Harmony Senior Citizens Center for U.S. Rep. Tom Reed’s first town hall meeting of the day as protesters and attendees waited to hear what the congressman had to say and share their own input. The crowd, numbering in the hundreds, had to be relocated outside due to the size of the gathering.

At first, no amplifier system was made available, however, one was brought out before the congressman arrived.

When Reed arrived, he thanked the crowd for attending and invited them to share their opinions with him.

“I truly do believe you have to listen to people if you’re going to represent people,” Reed said.

The crowd yelled out several topics throughout the event for Reed to cover, such as repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act and defunding Planned Parenthood.

“I hear some sentiment that the (Affordable Care) act was broken, the act wasn’t working and you want us to fix it,” Reed said. “What we want to do is replace it with a health care system that works better for all Americans.”

He was then greeted with loud shouts of opposition.

A crowd member then brought up Planned Parenthood, saying that the idea that women only go to the organization for abortions is “ludicrous” because Planned Parenthood provides prenatal care, cancer screenings and other services.

“If you do away with Planned Parenthood and that funding, what you’re going to see is a spike in births, you’re going to see illegal abortions which are going to kill women and the fetuses,” she said. “It’s a ridiculous stance.”

The crowd cheered and clapped afterward, pausing for Reed to respond. He said he does not attempt to “dance around” positions when he has them.

“I do not support taxpayer-funded paying of abortion,” he said.

Another member of the crowd roared, “They don’t do that. It’s already illegal and it’s already not being done.”

For the full story, see Sunday’s edition of The Post-Journal.

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