To set the record straight, in advance, I am not pro abortion. I consider every abortion that takes place a tragedy. Nevertheless, my right to my own beliefs ends at the tip of your nose. I also recognize that sometimes the mistakes we make limit our choices, so that we are left with finding the least harmful choice of the options available . I have no right to direct which choices individual women make with their doctors, so I support the right of women to make their own choices, but that’s not the only reason I support Planned Parenthood.
Even with a persistent gender gap in a presidential election year, House Republicans have not given up on their campaign to narrow access to birth control, abortion care and lifesaving cancer screenings. Far from it.
A new Republican spending proposal revives some of the more extreme attacks on women’s health and freedom that were blocked by the Senate earlier in this Congress. The resurrection is part of an alarming national crusade that goes beyond abortion rights and strikes broadly at women’s health in general.
These setbacks are recycled from the Congressional trash bin in the fiscal 2013 spending bill for federal health, labor and education programs approved by a House appropriations subcommittee on July 18 over loud objections from Democratic members to these and other provisions.
The measure would bar Planned Parenthood’s network of clinics, which serve millions of women across the country, from receiving any federal money unless the health group agreed to no longer offer abortion services for which it uses no federal dollars — a patently unconstitutional provision. It would also eliminate financing for Title X, the effective federal family-planning program for low-income women that provides birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and testing for sexually-transmitted diseases. Without this program, some women would die, and unintended pregnancies would rise, resulting in some 400,000 more abortions a year and increases in Medicaid-related costs, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a leading authority on reproductive health…
Inserted from <NY Times>
Photo credit: Emily’s list
I also support Planned Parenthood, because of the many services they offer, so that the vast majority of what they do is completely unrelated with providing abortions. However, those services do prevent thousands of abortions every year. As someone who does not like abortion, I also support Planned Parenthood, because they are primarily an abortion prevention resource.
On the other hand, I do not support the Republican war on women that would goose-step women’s rights back to the 19th century.
17 Responses to “New Republican Assault on Planned Parenthood”
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Agree with you—-Had professional contact with PP over the years- and was familiar with the wonderful needed services they provide— To attack them is senseless – and hateful-
I also think abortion is tragic— but needs to be 'safe , legal and rare'—each person/woman has to make her decision – It is a medical procedure between a woman and her Dr- Period–
Thanks Phyllis.
I'm not pro-abortion but I am pro-choice. I'd rather women get abortions than to have a child they are ill equipped to care for. By that I mean women who will end up abusing, addicting, or even killing their offspring. It just seems more humane to me, especially if a woman knows in the first trimester that she will not care for her children.
I agree that every abortion is a tragedy but so is every case of child abuse.
Right on, Blue.
I am pro-choice and will support any woman that opts for an abortion — her body, her choice made in consultation with her doctor and family. I wish such procedures were not necessary, but sometimes they are. When only 3% of PP's services are related to abortion, and none of the federal money can go to provide abortions, the defunding of PP is a political decision based on religious values. And we all know that freedom of and from religion, as well as the separation of church and state, are contained in the first amendment. So how can the Republican/Teabaggers, who keep howling about the constitution and how Mr Obama, a constitutional law expert, doesn't understand the constitution, still press the matter?
But this is hanging up more than the PP funding.
"On top of that, the bill would prevent implementation of most of the Affordable Care Act …" — This is just plain bull shit. The Republican/Teabaggers are putting more than just women's lives at risk. 30 million Americans were without health insurance until the ACA was passed. These are men, women and children being put at risk by a bunch of right wing nut fanatical evangelical Christians. So if the bill would prevent the implementation of most of the ACA, what are these people to do? Whatever happened to Christian charity and compassion — oh that's right, it only extends to the 1%.
"…without explanation, the full Appropriations Committee’s consideration of the bill has been postponed indefinitely. It may be that Speaker John Boehner wants to avoid a controversy heading toward November that shifts focus from the economy. …" — It will take more than Boehner's desire to avoid controversy with the election looming, to make women and their male supporters forget about the Republican/Teabagger war on women. The controversy is still alive and very healthy. Don't mistake the quiet for a memory lapse in women.
"…regressive politics and the policies espoused by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney. That makes it a window on what a Romney presidency could mean for women’s rights and lives." — This wannabe POTUS is a disgrace to the human race.
Just to be clear, I will also support the right of any woman to opt for abortion. Being anti-abortion and pro-choice are compatible positions.
"A new Republican spending proposal revives some of the more extreme attacks on women’s health and freedom that were blocked by the Senate earlier in this Congress."
So much for Job Creation….?
Be fair, Richard. Republicans love job creation… in China.
As a physician, I am (and always have been) very strongly Pro-Choice. It's a stance that NOT ONCE has ever forced those who are adamantly opposed to abortion actually having one. And that's a statement that Anti-Choice zealots, WRT their prohibitions, can NOT say. And even though I've said it before … I'll say it again:
On the one hand, repubicans endlessly claim that abortion is murder. Yet on the other hand, they claim that it should be left up to the states.
Why should it be acceptable leaving it up to the states to decide if an abortion is murder, but not up to a pregnant woman to make the same decision?
If abortion really is murder, then nobody should permit it. If it isn’t, why is a state legislature more competent to decide that a woman should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term than that pregnant woman herself?
Nameless, I fully agree. Thew hypocrisy of the Republican position is extreme.
Line from a Hollywood movie:
Defend the right of those who scream at the top of their lungs, that which you have spent a lifetime opposing.
Pro-choice on most issues, is the only approach to take.
Make abortions illegal, and take away a choice for those who need/want one, even if you think it's a despicable choice. Make guns illegal, take away a choice for those who want to own one. Making laws based on religious/moral basis, takes away the choice of those who do not believe in that ideology.
Where is the protection for the minority, if the majority simply makes their choices, illegal?
If you don't like it, don't do it, but don't tell anyone else they cannot do it. In fact fight for their right to make a choice different than yours.
Extremely well said, Steve.
The Klanservative Klanbagging Kochsuckers won't be satisfied until only white men can vote, women are property, and people of color are back in chains.
This IS their agenda. Period. They've offered a lot of proof of it.
I firmly believe that you are correct in your thinking! The RepublicanTs will not be satisfied until they have absolute control over all other human beings.
What patty said
I cannot get my head around abortion. To me, it is killing an innocent. There are other options.
Gypsy, I certainly appreciate how you feel. I'm just saying that we need to respect the human rights of others.