Ever since I heard the anti-abortion protesters screaming in my ear and had their fake signs of dead babies thrown in my face as I sheepishly went into a Planned Parenthood on Colorado Avenue back in 1996, I've been pretty clear that these folks are up for using all sorts of manipulative tactics to limit choice. This new angle, however, surprised me. The argument goes:
We should stop federally funding Planned Parenthood because the economy is so bad and they already have private donations.
FYI, Planned Parenthood receives about $335 million a year from the government, specifically targeted for contraception, sex education and health care for poor women and teenagers. Yup. I'm sure this has everything to do with the failing economy and nothing to do with some strategic (not to mention righteous) thinking on the part of a few anti-abortion organizations that are trying to squeeze lemonade out of some really shitty lemons. Note: the federal funds don't go to abortions. That money comes from the other 2/3 of the budget raised through private sources. But I'm sure that the anti-choice folks see any way that they can hurt Planned Parenthood as a score for the team.
The Wall Street Journal gave this specious argument major column inches covering it in yesterday's paper, reporting that "The Family Research Council is developing a kit to help grass-roots activists dig through financial reports so they can make detailed presentations to elected officials about the assets and revenue of local Planned Parenthood chapters. The council has sent letters to 1,200 state legislators describing Planned Parenthood's strong financial position and urging 'a second look' at public funding."
Already, Planned Parenthood's in Florida and Georgia have been hit.
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*SCREAMS* I'm just... Ugh. What the hell do we have to do before our RIGHTS get some respect around here?
By that logic, all programs that receive both private and government funding should be cut off.
And we should cut the United Way, any money going to public schools, and all faith based initiatives. Good logic.
The anti-choice group that picketed (read: terrorized) the clinic where I volunteered actually PAID some of their 'activists' to show up.
Say $6 per hour, 4 hours every Saturday, 8 people, 40ish weeks a year (they didn't 'protect life' during inclement weather or holidays) = $ 7, 680 per year. That would've bought a lot of diapers, clothes, and vaccinations for poor children. Or a lot of birth control to render those abortions moot.
Conservatives are often the ones who buy into the myth of the Welfare Queen and moan about federal taxes assisting those who don't have enough to make ends meet. What do you think is going to happen to women and girls who will be unable to get contraceptives at sliding-scale costs if the federal funding is cut? Babies and children cost a hell of a lot more than birth control. Additionally, more pregnancies equal more abortions which makes the pro-life push against Planned Parenthood even more counterintuitive.
Yeah, that's the thing. If conservatives could ban abortion and all welfare and other social services, they'd jump at the chance. They'd regard it as an excellent punishment for the evil sluts who got themselves knocked up in the first place, and if it punishes kids as well, then tough cookies. Anti-choicers lose interest the second a foetus is born and is no longer a foetus because they're miserable assholes who get off on making people's lives as miserable and difficult as possible.
Let's just hope that our president-elect chimes in on this one.
It really angers me that the government will support faith-based initiatives, when our constitution blatantly states that the government will not promote any religion (gosh, I wonder if that money tends to go to one religion in particular. . .) but this kind of shit gets passed.
I'm sorry, but can we please not have it go both ways? It's mightily shitty that they're doing this, but I could almost understand them opposing it if they also opposed all the other shady things that our government gives money to. But they don't, because there's nothing noble about this, they're just trying to hurt their political enemies, without worrying about ethics, or collateral damage. And who cares, when the collateral damage is just poor women, right?
It's just financial good sense. Because especially when money is tight and jobs are insecure and hard to find, everybody knows that the best thing for any young woman is a surprise unplanned pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood stands for the following: freedom, education, knowledge, equality. I think that for those reasons alone, they should receive government funding. I further believe that every child should be a wanted child. A woman should be able to control her own body, (like the common saying “every man for himself”– but what about when it comes to a woman??). And most importantly, Planned Parenthood is an organization that focuses on health care, education and contraception.
Perhaps the people who want to take down Planned Parenthood should fund all the children born from unplanned pregnancies. Or they should consider that abortions reduce the number of abused children. A hungry child is an abused child.
Planned Parenthood = eugenics
Austin Nedved--do you even know what eugenics means? Because your comment leads me to believe that you don't. Are you trying to say that Planned Parenthood is preventing the births of poor children and that's eugenics? The truth is that women of all economic classes have abortions, it's just that those who have private insurance or enough money to pay outright tend to go to their own doctors, not to PP.
I know, I know, don't feed the trolls. It's just that I really hate it when people throw around words they don't understand.