Republicans continue to say they don’t have to change their core principles, they only have to change the language they use to get their message out. One perception they want to alter is the idea that they are running a “War on Women”. Looking at the news over the past few years, I’d say the Republican Party has a long way to go on this subject.
- Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky): “Talk about a manufactured issue. There is no issue.”
- RNC Chairman Reince Priebus: “It’s a fiction.”
The Congressional Front
what eye thynk:
This issue is so important that I am sharing Mother Jones' article in its entirety, including all their links.
"The House on Friday voted 241-187 to strip Planned Parenthood of some $500 million in federal family planning funds for a year. The move is intended to keep the public eye on allegations of illegal behavior by Planned Parenthood staffers but remove the possibility of a government shutdown by conservatives bent on defunding the organization.
The vote followed several grueling hearings held by the House Judiciary Committee into the undercover sting videos that allegedly show Planned Parenthood employees selling fetal parts, which would be a violation of federal law."
PP is permitted by virtue of a law passed in 1993 with overwhelming Republican support to be reimbursed for the cost of storing and shipping fetal tissue to be used in medical research.
"The organization has denied the allegations, and state by state investigating the videos, which are heavily edited, has been (sic) found no evidence of wrongdoing. "
The House' own Judiciary Committee which called their obviously biased hearings "Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation's Largest Abortion Provider," and which did not invite testimony from anyone at PP, has also been unable to report they have found any evidence of wrong-doing. It appears that the only reason John Boehner's chamber decided to hold hearings at all was to give the anti-abortion Representatives a chance to pose for the folks back home.
"As the October 1 deadline for funding the government approaches, however, several conservative members of Congress, including presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), threatened to block any government funding bill that provided Medicaid or family planning dollars to Planned Parenthood. But it remains to be seen if this latest vote will satisfy conservative elements of the party."
If I were a graduate student in psychology, I'd be looking at writing a thesis on the underlying reason behind the GOP's inability to accept that fact is truth. Is it an over-active ego? A case of mass-hysteria? Fear of looking foolish to their peers? An over-riding need to be right, no matter the evidence?
"Planned Parenthood is barred by law from using federal funds to provide abortions."
That one statement is what makes this anti-PP fight so egregious. Republicans want to eliminate federal dollars in order to prevent abortions which already are not funded by federal dollars. There is, literally, no point to their argument.
"The $500 million or so it receives each year from the government allows the group to provide family planning and other reproductive health services to mostly poor women on Medicaid. Ahead of the vote, conservative activists and lawmakers circulated a list of thousands of other family planning providers that could replace Planned Parenthood for the thousands of poor women who use its services. There is ample evidence to suggest that these alternatives to Planned Parenthood do not have the capacity to treat the group's patients."
Louisiana is one state that circulated alternative caregivers that they said could take over women's health care. State anti-abortion lawmakers pointed to the length of the alternative caregiver list to support their argument that there are plenty of other doctors ready to take on women's health issues.
A more careful look at their list demonstrated just how clueless these legislators are. The list included opthamologists, nursing homes, home care providers, dentists, ear, nose and throat doctors, and cosmetic surgeons. I'm no medical expert, but I'm pretty sure that when a woman needs a pap smear or a breast exam, her dentist is not going to be very helpful. And if she is concerned about HIV or a sexually transmitted disease, she will not be consulting with the guy who did her neighbor's nose-job.
After looking over the list, a judge responded, "It strikes me as extremely odd that you have a dermatologist, an audiologist, a dentist who are billing for family planning services." Louisiana lawmakers later provided a more accurate list of alternate caregivers--they numbered 29, all of which said they lacked the capacity to take on the thousands of women left stranded by the closing of Planned Parenthood facilities.
One has only to look to Indiana for proof that closing Planned Parenthood clinics and leaving women to find general healthcare elsewhere is a bad idea. Indiana eliminated all state funding for PP, forcing the state's five PP clinics to close--clinics that provided the state's only free testing for HIV. The result is an on-going epidemic of HIV in Indiana so severe that Governor Mike Pence (R) has called it a public health emergency.
"The bill now goes to the GOP-held Senate, where it almost certainly faces a filibuster by Democrats in the minority."
Anyone who follows my blog knows it was born nearly four years ago out of my frustration with the anti-abortion movement. I am a proud member of the generation of women who fought for and gained the right to safe and legal abortion for every woman--not to force abortion on those who do not believe in it, but to save the lives of those who do.
This latest Washington publicity stunt is just the latest in a fact-adverse fight to control my body, my family's wishes and my own health-care decisions. I am a fully competent member of the human race...a whole and competent life form--LIFE, as in what the "pro-LIFE" people say they want to protect.
If defending life is what people like Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and the rest of his clan really want to do, they should stop using my LIFE and my health as cheap currency in their fight to take away my right to sovereignty over my own LIFE's choices. Getting more votes than the other guy on a ballot does not grant you dominion over my LIFE or my right to live my time on the earth in as healthy a manner as possible.
The fact that "pro" life advocates seem to view the women who may die from lack of Planned Parenthood cancer screenings or an undiagnosed STD as collateral damage--sad, but ultimately unimportant--demonstrates just how little respect they actually have for LIFE in all its conformations.
The Republican War on Women is "fiction?"
WHAT YOU DO SPEAKS SO LOUDLY
THAT I CANNOT HEAR WHAT YOU SAY.
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