Why don't men and boys just use birth control?
41
The right to an abortion has been a political football because the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was narrow in scope dealing only with a state of Texas law. In it’s decision the Court stated the right must be balanced against the state’s two legitimate interests regarding abortions: protecting women’s health and protecting the potentiality of human life, conditions so open to interpretation it renders them moot. Which begs the question:
Why didn’t any of our three Democratic presidents since 1973 —Carter, Clinton and Obama — who presided when Congress was controlled by their party ever put forth a Women's' Reproductive Rights Act that could have established a national uniform standard for a woman's abortion rights that COULD NOT BE ALTERED OR ABRIDGED by the states?
Why didn’t any of our three Democratic presidents since 1973 —Carter, Clinton and Obama — who presided when Congress was controlled by their party ever put forth a Women's' Reproductive Rights Act that could have established a national uniform standard for a woman's abortion rights that COULD NOT BE ALTERED OR ABRIDGED by the states?
42
Note that red states are following GOP congress strategies of fighting against the funding and the rights provided to people by the federal government. This is the overall GOP goal to de-construct all federal agencies, programs, and rights and claim that "this issue" is better handled by the states. This is the GOP thinly veiled, long time goal, of changing democracy into a states right driven republic where everything is privatized, that is owned by the rich, and their is no recourse for the average person. This is evident by reading the news for the past five or more years and reading what the red states are doing. The support the GOP got came from tea party, evangelicals, or any other such group that believes they are speaking for God. They don't realize that makes them the same as ISIS,the taliban, & other similar groups who think they speak for God too, by killing them. And there is the stunning similarity, that will the second groups kill the body, the american groups kill american rights, womens rights, health care, voting rights,public education, everything that makes america, america. How this entire country fell for the evangelic, etc lie that they are pro-life is disturbing. They decide if a woman wants an abortion,she's bad. Why?Do you know her life,her health,her mentality,her situation? You don't&it's known of your damn business. A woman's body,a woman's right,no third,dictatorial party involvement.This is about GOP trying to reduce activism
105
World gone mad...its Joe McCarthy come to life again in the Republican Party...trying to politicize womens health is just another reason to vote for the opposite party that is out of power.
The fly over states and the south wonder why they are denigrated as country bumpkins and simpletons....well look in the mirror....especially on this issue...Planned Parenthood educates, dispenses medical services to women who cannot afford it and offers reproductive services that have helped millions of women plan their families and lead productive lives.
That is just too much to take for the right wing...just more small mindedness along with climate denial, evolution denial, and just plain racism for the last eight years.
Who knew?
The fly over states and the south wonder why they are denigrated as country bumpkins and simpletons....well look in the mirror....especially on this issue...Planned Parenthood educates, dispenses medical services to women who cannot afford it and offers reproductive services that have helped millions of women plan their families and lead productive lives.
That is just too much to take for the right wing...just more small mindedness along with climate denial, evolution denial, and just plain racism for the last eight years.
Who knew?
63
It's time for young women to stand up and be counted on this issue. While the men do this in legislatures across this country, the police throw away rape kits by the thousands without any investigations at all. They aid and abet rapists. Think about that.
Women. Wake up. You are being used, disrespected, and ignored. Get with it. Write, march, organize. These men that pass these laws and sign them into law are not representing you. Vote them out.
Women. Wake up. You are being used, disrespected, and ignored. Get with it. Write, march, organize. These men that pass these laws and sign them into law are not representing you. Vote them out.
97
What a disgrace.
38
I wish you had pointed out that one of the remaining Republican candidates, John Kasic, just defunded Planned Parenthood in Ohio!
73
We the people have no one but ourselves to blame for the misogynist politicians who detest the poor and any service the government may provide them. But as a 63 year old women way past my child bearing years, where are my fellow women in this? Why aren't more women (and men) who are pro-reproductive rights running for office and being supported esp. by women? Why isn't there more registering of voters, picketing these politicians homes and getting them out of office? Until we the citizens become PROACTIVE instead of REACTIVE there will be no change.
72
Nah...no war on women:
work to kill Obamacare contraception coverage.
work to kill off Planned Parenthood.
work to make abortion clinics as rare as clean water in Flint, MI.
work to kill Obamacare contraception coverage.
work to kill off Planned Parenthood.
work to make abortion clinics as rare as clean water in Flint, MI.
56
Planned parenting services are widely available and cheap . . . . EVERYWHERE . . in America. And not just available but ADVERTISED and encouraged EVERYWHERE in America.
All arguments supporting PP is nothing more than the uncivil Liberal excusing the outrageous use of Federal dollars to perform abortions.
Only obstinance and incivility keeps PP from completely splitting off its abortion services. I'd be a contributor to that essential need for America's poor.
All arguments supporting PP is nothing more than the uncivil Liberal excusing the outrageous use of Federal dollars to perform abortions.
Only obstinance and incivility keeps PP from completely splitting off its abortion services. I'd be a contributor to that essential need for America's poor.
4
Why no mention of the defunding in Ohio by John Kasich ???? He has defunded Planned Parenthood mightily in his state yet your editorial board makes no mention?!?!?!?
54
And the media thinks Donald Trump is against women, whoa....the whole party is 100% against females.....all in for controlling women......simply incredible!
And women still vote Republican, even more incredible
And women still vote Republican, even more incredible
61
It amazes me to read these posts in supposedly the newspaper of record, read by the most "intelligent" readers on the planet.
Either you did not watch the PP videos, or you watched them while you were stoned or smashed?
Why o why is this evil organization so revered?
Google Margaret Sanger, read about her views on African Americans. Read the book "Grand Illusion"
The Legacy of Planned Parenthood" by George Grant. Read the book "Blood Money" by Carol Everett. Read!!!...you so called "enlightened ones"
Why are you in such denial? Would you have supported slavery? Would you have supported the Nazi's? ... Do you know about the slave trade?
Do you know about the Nazis? If you are aware of these particular things how did you learn about them?
Did you read about them, did you inform yourself?
Did you just believe whatever someone told you?
You're ignorance about PP is obvious to anyone who had actually educated themselves on this organization.
Either you did not watch the PP videos, or you watched them while you were stoned or smashed?
Why o why is this evil organization so revered?
Google Margaret Sanger, read about her views on African Americans. Read the book "Grand Illusion"
The Legacy of Planned Parenthood" by George Grant. Read the book "Blood Money" by Carol Everett. Read!!!...you so called "enlightened ones"
Why are you in such denial? Would you have supported slavery? Would you have supported the Nazi's? ... Do you know about the slave trade?
Do you know about the Nazis? If you are aware of these particular things how did you learn about them?
Did you read about them, did you inform yourself?
Did you just believe whatever someone told you?
You're ignorance about PP is obvious to anyone who had actually educated themselves on this organization.
4
If you are poor and on welfare you can afford few pleasures. If you have cable tv, the right wingers will scream that why should they subsidize someone who can afford cable tv. If you buy a 6-pack to help relax on the one evening you have free, the screamers will insist if you can afford beer you don't need welfare. Movies? A vacation?! A night out at a restaurant? Not possible. But there is one last pleasure that is free, sex. And that drives the screamers crazy.
The poor should not have any pleasure in life, they must never smile or look happy, they must spend every waking minute working, looking for jobs, finding a way to get off welfare so the screamers' tax dollars can be better spent...on wars, subsidizing huge multi-national corporations, and further tax cuts for the wealthy.
So expect the war on Planned Parenthood and contraception to continue until all the poor finally self-deport from this life and stop being a burden on the screamers.
The poor should not have any pleasure in life, they must never smile or look happy, they must spend every waking minute working, looking for jobs, finding a way to get off welfare so the screamers' tax dollars can be better spent...on wars, subsidizing huge multi-national corporations, and further tax cuts for the wealthy.
So expect the war on Planned Parenthood and contraception to continue until all the poor finally self-deport from this life and stop being a burden on the screamers.
44
This is not simply an assault on Planned Parenthood it's part of a campaign against women in general. When oh when are we all going to recognize that fact?
42
No mention of Donald Trump's statements about Planned Parenthood? No mention of the fact that Trump says Planned Parenthood does good work (other than its work on abortions)?
4
Maybe CEO Denise Richard's should ask Hillary Clinton for that $250,000 campaign contribution back. This Planned Parenthood contributor is done with donating to a group that hands my money to candidates I will not support.
5
Why stop at "assault"? That is so out of date now. The latest term for these "outrages" is "throw under the bus".
You want PP to be funded and you may well be right on this. But not funding it does not constitute assault.
I would like my next trip to Europe to be funded by the New York Times. It probably will not be. But I will not call it "assault on my Europe trip."
Something is lost when major newspapers like the Times start to use the kind of language one is more used to seeing in rag media who understand no emotions in between outlandish praise and utter condemnation.
You want PP to be funded and you may well be right on this. But not funding it does not constitute assault.
I would like my next trip to Europe to be funded by the New York Times. It probably will not be. But I will not call it "assault on my Europe trip."
Something is lost when major newspapers like the Times start to use the kind of language one is more used to seeing in rag media who understand no emotions in between outlandish praise and utter condemnation.
5
Republicans: unfit to govern and dangerous to womens' health
52
A bit of longer range thinking might bring these Republican extremists to a screeching halt. A significant proportion of white middle class women can pack an overnight bag and fly to Mexico for abortions and contraceptives, thereby keeping that group's birth rate within its means. Minority groups with far more limited means are far less able to afford such measures to keep their birth rate within their means. Just think what that's doing to the Republican electorate! Dumb move from a bunch of white men who continuously lament the diminished future they're leaving their grandchildren. You guys can climb out of your pulpits and pay now, or your grandchildren can pay later.
34
All I want is for men to stop thinking they have control over my body. That is literally my biggest issue with this. No uterus, no opinion.
59
What to make of this, when you unpack the facts.
1. Make it more difficult to obtain birth control
2. Prohibit abortions
So increase the likelihood of unwanted pregnancies while at the same time eliminate any options.
Someone explain to me how this is ANY different than the kind of actions we would see under Sharia law?
It's all about control of women under the guise of religiosity.
1. Make it more difficult to obtain birth control
2. Prohibit abortions
So increase the likelihood of unwanted pregnancies while at the same time eliminate any options.
Someone explain to me how this is ANY different than the kind of actions we would see under Sharia law?
It's all about control of women under the guise of religiosity.
64
I would love to support Planned Parenthood if all they did was help women plan parenthood. Their now-documented record of callous butchery in late-term abortions is a grotesque assault on the fundamental concept of human rights, however. and those who support PP without acknowledging this are no better than the Republicans who, in "defense of the right to bear arms," refuse to budge an inch on banning assault weapons. In other words, defending the indefensible because you're afraid of some slippery slope.
2
Soooo, more unwanted children (many of whom will grow up to be criminals and /or prostitutes) from poor states, which means more people, more welfare, more disability, that the non deep red states will have to pay for.
Remind me again why we fought the Civil War.
Remind me again why we fought the Civil War.
45
Several comments suggest that many readers really don't know (or do know but ignore) what would happen if Roe v. Wade were reversed.
A reversal of Roe v. Wade wouldn't mean abortion is illegal.
It would mean only that the US Constitution doesn't guarantee a woman's right to have an abortion. Period. Any state could declare that that state's constitution – or even a plain old law of that state – does guarantee a woman's right to have an abortion.
In other words, a reversal of Roe v. Wade would turn the matter over to the states. Some states would declare unequivocally that abortion is a protected right. Other states would declare just the opposite. The existing US Constitutional right of a person to travel from state to state (a right that wouldn't be affected by a reversal of Roe v. Wade) would ensure that pregnant women may travel freely from a "no-abortions" state to an "abortions-OK" state without restriction or punishment. A great deal of money now donated to keep Roe v. Wade in place probably would be redirected to cover the travel expenses of those pregnant women.
A reversal of Roe v. Wade wouldn't mean abortion is illegal.
It would mean only that the US Constitution doesn't guarantee a woman's right to have an abortion. Period. Any state could declare that that state's constitution – or even a plain old law of that state – does guarantee a woman's right to have an abortion.
In other words, a reversal of Roe v. Wade would turn the matter over to the states. Some states would declare unequivocally that abortion is a protected right. Other states would declare just the opposite. The existing US Constitutional right of a person to travel from state to state (a right that wouldn't be affected by a reversal of Roe v. Wade) would ensure that pregnant women may travel freely from a "no-abortions" state to an "abortions-OK" state without restriction or punishment. A great deal of money now donated to keep Roe v. Wade in place probably would be redirected to cover the travel expenses of those pregnant women.
Once again our shortsighted politicians have put their own political advantage over common sense health issues. If you asked them if they have stopped caring about poor women's health, they would say that, of course, they do. However, the issue is faceless to them because they only want to keep their uninformed citizens willing to keep them in power. Women need to stay informed and involved in this issue and get rid of these people. Abortion foes will do and say whatever supports their agenda. We simply need to stay as loyal to the cause women's health as we possible can. This is a real battle for equal rights for women.
11
If you're against abortion, the answer is simple....don't have one. But for anti abortion zealots to dictate how one is to live their life is just plain wrong. The GOP says it wants "less government" but has no problem dictating that abortion should be illegal. These misogynists are hypocrites who ardently entertain the ridiculous notion that life begins at erection and ends at birth When was the last time one of them offered to care for an unwanted child? These are the same people that want to deny child health care, housing, education, etc. These are the same hypocrites that have no problem war-mongering. There is no "sanctity of life" despite what these lying hypocrites say.
26
The GOP is the anti science party. They prefer the biblical ideological positions. It is nothing less than an assault on the First Amendment that this religious anti freedom of choice is forced upon the women of our nation. It is mind bogglingly hypocritical that sex education and birth control are not only mandatory, but encouraged. It should be prohibited that states can pass laws undermining a national law, and that poor women's destiny is again decided by place of birth. The GOP are masters of highlighting "moral" issues which distracts us from their obstruction and desired destruction of Social Security, social programs needed by the "47%", and pro war/military expenditures. Any sane woman should never vote for any republican.
15
Republicans are (not atypically) taking stands in support of that which is unconstitutional (depriving rights and privileges) to support--subtly or blatantly--what is also unconstitutional--using specific religious beliefs to dictate policy and control the choices and behaviors of all. It's everywhere. Let's put it in the big context and see what Americans think about religious freedom under the law.
8
There are those who favor abortion, period.
There are those who oppose abortion, period.
And then there are those -- most of us, I suspect -- who favor abortion but have great respect for the views of those who oppose it. Many in this third group thinks the decision should be moved down to the local level, or at least to the state level. The US Supreme Court shouldn't say abortion is a right under the US Constitution. By reversing Roe v. Wade, the Court wouldn't be saying abortion is illegal -- it would merely be saying the US Constitution doesn't guarantee a right to abortion. Period. Each state could then decide whether, in that state, abortion is legal or illegal. States' decisions on that would vary greatly. The US Supreme Court could then limit itself to cases in which (for example) a state tries to prevent a pregnant woman from traveling to another state to have an abortion. Almost certainly the Court would rule that the long-protected right of a person to travel freely from state to state makes it unconstitutional for a state to punish someone for traveling to another state to have an abortion. (An analogy: Some states outlaw gambling, but they can't punish a state resident for taking a trip to Las Vegas.)
There are those who oppose abortion, period.
And then there are those -- most of us, I suspect -- who favor abortion but have great respect for the views of those who oppose it. Many in this third group thinks the decision should be moved down to the local level, or at least to the state level. The US Supreme Court shouldn't say abortion is a right under the US Constitution. By reversing Roe v. Wade, the Court wouldn't be saying abortion is illegal -- it would merely be saying the US Constitution doesn't guarantee a right to abortion. Period. Each state could then decide whether, in that state, abortion is legal or illegal. States' decisions on that would vary greatly. The US Supreme Court could then limit itself to cases in which (for example) a state tries to prevent a pregnant woman from traveling to another state to have an abortion. Almost certainly the Court would rule that the long-protected right of a person to travel freely from state to state makes it unconstitutional for a state to punish someone for traveling to another state to have an abortion. (An analogy: Some states outlaw gambling, but they can't punish a state resident for taking a trip to Las Vegas.)
We also can't let Planned Parenthood off the hook. By now they should have decades of experience fighting anti-women's health lawmakers and lobbyists. I'm getting tired of seeing them achieve little in the political arena besides playing defense.
18
Thought the NYT should correct a typo, States are against the national organization devoted to Birth Prevention, called 'Planned Parenthood', which was founded By Eugenics Enthusiast Margret Sanger to stop most people from reproducing. (note: Eugenics fell into disrepute when Adolph Hitler thought it a wonderful idea.) Planned Parenthood is then not about 'parenthood' at all.
5
What nonsense. Planned Parenthood stands for the belief that we should be able to plan whether and when to become parents. Obviously.
Each time I read a comment like yours I realize what we are up against and increase the amount of my monthly donation.
Each time I read a comment like yours I realize what we are up against and increase the amount of my monthly donation.
31
Most women are parents at some point in life. The people who work at Planned Parenthood, their customers, their suppliers, those who donate to the entity--- are mostly parents at some point in their lives. Ergo, they are not interested in Birth Prevention. Suggest a logic class might be in order for you, followed by a more accurate history course.
17
When it comes to abortion what any politician, church, or civic authority has to say about it will not alter my view, my rights and my actions ... that there be only two people involved: the doctor/nurse practitioner and the woman. Period.
These religious zealots who insist on unfettered conception regardless of conditions and circumstances invariably and routinely ignore the fate of the unwanted child committed to a life bound in shallows and miseries absent vital necessities.
These religious zealots who insist on unfettered conception regardless of conditions and circumstances invariably and routinely ignore the fate of the unwanted child committed to a life bound in shallows and miseries absent vital necessities.
74
Not true there is a third entity in the mix, the inborn child.
2
800,000 abortions per year in the US. Approximately half of the women have had a previous abortion. How about you people just use birth control? Typical Americans, do whatever you want, don't take personal responsibility.
4
You are making the obscene suggestion that a human life should be brought into being as a form of punishment.
12
RE "How about you people just use birth control?"
Try arguing that with the righteous religious zealots in the GOP hell-bent on banning the pill through constitutional amendment.
Try arguing that with the righteous religious zealots in the GOP hell-bent on banning the pill through constitutional amendment.
17
The article doesn't mention that John Kasich, the Times's preferred Republican candidate, recently signed a bill which prohibits the State of Ohio for contracting for medical services with any organization, like Planned Parenthood, which also provides abortion services.
46
Democrats need to appoint the next two Supreme Court Justices to stop this lunacy and the voter denial movement. Complaining about the court and not working to get a Democrat in the White House is foolishness.
29
One of the thoughts that have always niggled me on hearing the rages against women who "kill innocent babies" is, "Here's another person who's not at all certain that his mother wouldn't have aborted him had she known how he would turn out."
(Or, sadder yet, how she'd turn out.)
(Or, sadder yet, how she'd turn out.)
9
How in the world does this editorial not mention Ohio Governor John Kasich, who flew back home to sign a bill defunding Planned Parenthood on a Sunday a month or two ago - in between campaign stops running for president of the United States of America.
He did it with no press conference or announcement. Oh, golly, oh shucks, I guess he just forgot to announce it. How could you not mention him at all by name considering people are looking at him as an alternative to Trump and Cruz at a contested convention? He's still a governor the last time I checked.
He did it with no press conference or announcement. Oh, golly, oh shucks, I guess he just forgot to announce it. How could you not mention him at all by name considering people are looking at him as an alternative to Trump and Cruz at a contested convention? He's still a governor the last time I checked.
64
what an awful country we have become. we deny choice, we instill pain, we withhold hope and we punish those that disagree with certain values. I fear Christian terrorists more than Islamic Terrorists.
47
"Deceptive videos?" Not really. Whether or not one thinks it's OK to sell fetal tissue (I do), there's no question that the videos show PP officials negotiating the sale of fetal tissue. Nothing "deceptive" there.
4
What the tapes show is a guy pretending to represent a research company, attempting (and failing) to get a Planned Parenthood representative to break the law. The inflated price points come out of his mouth...a classic case of entrapment, which failed miserably.
20
For the Millienials who thought Albright and Steinem were annoying and out of touch- This story is exactly what they were talking about. The GOP has glommed onto women's health and plans to gut it for political reasons- not because they are sensitive souls worrying about "the children".
How do we know this? Look at how they treat childhood poverty and nutrition and education etc etc in The Real World, not the petri dish.
52
It's like Yoko Ono said back in 1972: "Woman is the N****r of the World. Sadly, it's still true. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that modern young women are mostly postfeminist. They think that the fight is over and largely won, and at any rate, feminism isn't cool. Sexism is very insidious, helped along by biological differences between the genders. Women are the childbearers, and that has led to a lot of compromises. When women who work full-time as well as their spouses are tasked with the household chores and child care, we still have a long ways to go.
28
There is a veritable assault on women's rights underway across the country in GOP-dominated legislatures with bills introduced in more than 40 states to limit or ban abortion, restrict access to birth control or other services. Laws have been passed forcing vaginal probes and interfering with the privacy of doctor/woman counselling on reproductive matters.
Federally the GOP-dominated congress voted against the Fair Pay Act insisting that women do get paid equally, and is pushing to overturn roe vs wade taking away a woman´s right to choose, dismantling planned parenthood entirely, and banning the pill through constitutional amendment.
The GOP voted down the Fair Pay Act relegating women to earning 75% what men are paid for the same work. The GOP regularly denies women the services they need to care for themselves and their families from Planned Parenthood to FMLA to SNAP, to paid sick leave. The GOP supports TRAP laws to cut off access to legal and safe contraception services.
Federally the GOP-dominated congress voted against the Fair Pay Act insisting that women do get paid equally, and is pushing to overturn roe vs wade taking away a woman´s right to choose, dismantling planned parenthood entirely, and banning the pill through constitutional amendment.
The GOP voted down the Fair Pay Act relegating women to earning 75% what men are paid for the same work. The GOP regularly denies women the services they need to care for themselves and their families from Planned Parenthood to FMLA to SNAP, to paid sick leave. The GOP supports TRAP laws to cut off access to legal and safe contraception services.
41
The anti-abortion cultists are running one of the most successful scams ever. They profess to care about fetuses inside other peoples' bodies. This is ridiculous; humans aren't wired to care about others they don't even know - regardless of state of development. No, what matters to the cultists is their religion; trying to force that religion on the rest of us gives meaning to their otherwise empty lives.
47
You're talking about the true believers. Most of the Republican politicians fighting to reduce women's reproductive rights are not in fact true believers.
The truth is more depressing – – they are the handmaidens of the wealthy and of corporate interests, throwing women under the bus to get the votes of evangelicals. The real goal is to further the economic agenda of the most economically powerful segments of our society.
The truth is more depressing – – they are the handmaidens of the wealthy and of corporate interests, throwing women under the bus to get the votes of evangelicals. The real goal is to further the economic agenda of the most economically powerful segments of our society.
22
It's also largely about controlling women
13
You only care about people you actually know? You could use some religion.
2
The assault on PP is so typical of GOP lawmakers whose abject ignorance and ugly haughty demagoguery makes a mockery of the very essence of political responsibility and decency. The GOP denies physics (global warming), biology (evolution), and math (who created the deficit mess we are in). And it pushes for cuts in education spending and expends more political energy on anti-abortion and anti-gay measures than anything else by far. This is the Party of Stupid. It isn't the message, or the messenger or how it is pitched. It's simply ludicrous wrong headed policy that marks the decadent and decaying GOP, no question.
52
There needs to be an intelligent discussion on abortion - an issue with two genuine points of view.
It is a pity that NYT readers no longer know how to discuss.
Bashing people with different views has become our substitute for discussion.
A pity.
It is a pity that NYT readers no longer know how to discuss.
Bashing people with different views has become our substitute for discussion.
A pity.
5
Why do those who are anti-termination-of-undesired-zygotes, care ?
People usually choose to operate on unwanted tumors.
People usually choose to operate on unwanted tumors.
3
Are women of child-bearing age going to be happy with the GOP when they get mosquito bites and have no recourse to giving birth to a microcephalic child?
20
Anything to avoid addressing the real problems we are confronted with!
5
What article and section of the Constitution state that private organizations are entitled to taxpayer money? How about a GoFundMe? If every crybaby abortionista who voted for Obama gave PP $10, that would replace its federal funding.
2
You are promulgating the rightwing-generated misconception that the government somehow allocates donations to Planned Parenthood.
This is not the case.
Like thousands upon thousands of other healthcare providers, Planned Parenthood is eligible to receive reimbursement from the government health insurance entities known as Medicaid and Medicare.
FOR SERVICES RENDERED.
Just like the family doctor who takes care of your grandma on Medicare.
The government is no more "funding" Planned Parenthood that it is "funding" that family doctor.
Abortion, which accounts for only approximately 3% of the healthcare delivered by Planned Parenthood, is an excluded service.
Facts matter.
This is not the case.
Like thousands upon thousands of other healthcare providers, Planned Parenthood is eligible to receive reimbursement from the government health insurance entities known as Medicaid and Medicare.
FOR SERVICES RENDERED.
Just like the family doctor who takes care of your grandma on Medicare.
The government is no more "funding" Planned Parenthood that it is "funding" that family doctor.
Abortion, which accounts for only approximately 3% of the healthcare delivered by Planned Parenthood, is an excluded service.
Facts matter.
18
What can women do that is more masochistic than voting for Republicans?
23
Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood for bogus videos alleging the selling of fetal tissue is a disgrace, dishonest, shameful and stupid. Republicans are denying health care to thousands of indigenous folks who could not receive basic care otherwise. Republicans, being generally well-to-do, have no experience whatsoever in what it means to be poor and 'invisible', a huge social distance and not allowing compassion to enter the picture, let alone justice, All in all, an outrage and an insult to our common shared humanity. How is it possible that such a 'rich' country allows this disparity...with a straight face? And a G.O.P. governor enjoying immunity while mistreating the very folks that put him in office? What's going on?
24
PP was a bipartisan supported program in the 70s, that is no longer is a measure that the attacks on women's freedoms as equal American citizens are increasing. Mistreatment of women by many societies around the world is accepted. More and more often accepted as the way it is and not the horror that it can be for the women living in these male dominated societies. Our Constitution says we are not to accept it here. Women need to stand up and use their voices, their education and vote
27
With all the missteps Pence has made in Indiana, I'm thinking Indiana will get a Democratic Governor. It's not just the recent abortion law preventing abortions for fetal abnormalities (as if this state would ever help with taking care of the very sick babies born to mothers who don't want them). Now the state will have to pay to defend its constitutionality (it isn't constitutional), after paying for cleaning up after RFRA (said cleanup didn't work and cost a pretty penny). Gov. Pence doubles down on stupid because he doesn't know anything else, didn't learn a thing in Washington, and can't. He's such a micro-manager, he wouldn't have time to learn anything, and certainly doesn't have the cranial capacity for it. Makes Daniels look like Saint Einstein.
18
If you don't want an abortion, don't get one. But you have absolutely no right to tell me that I can't use my right to have one if I want to. Planned Parenthood isn't the only place where abortions occur. They happen in hospitals, too. And if this assault on women continues, they'll be taking place in back alleys - again.
Why are these people SO intent on denying women their rights? Why are women's body parts SO important to them? It's disgusting and tiring. Will the people that want to deny women their own health choices be responsible for the unwanted child that mom's forced to carry? Maybe not in a direct way, but the rest of society will pay for many years to come.
And now Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, wants the names of fetal tissue researchers to investigate. I thought we were in the 21st century. Why do these people want us to live in the 7th?
Please leave Planned Parenthood alone.
Why are these people SO intent on denying women their rights? Why are women's body parts SO important to them? It's disgusting and tiring. Will the people that want to deny women their own health choices be responsible for the unwanted child that mom's forced to carry? Maybe not in a direct way, but the rest of society will pay for many years to come.
And now Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, wants the names of fetal tissue researchers to investigate. I thought we were in the 21st century. Why do these people want us to live in the 7th?
Please leave Planned Parenthood alone.
47
These pious self-appointed high priest Republican governors and legislators never seem to get the Easter message of love.
16
If men could have babies, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
39
If men could have babies, then they and not we would be the underclass.
2
And how many times have some of these Republican lawmakers had a daughter or niece or cousin that took a sudden vacation that lasted a few weeks?
42
... and can afford it on the taxpayer's tab.
5
Why, oh why did Planned Parenthood have to go and endorse a candidate who is unacceptable to many of us with more liberal views? I used to contribute. The glossy solicitations continue to come in. I put them in the trash. PP has serious leadership issues. (I still read the NYT, but with less and less enthusiasm.)
3
I'm sure the women who rely on PP for essential health care will understand that you've decided to stop donating simply because PP didn't endorse your preferred candidate. All that privilege must be nice. (That's sarcasm, for the impaired).
18
Congrats on your decision to help the bad guys.
7
You stopped supporting PP's work preventing STDs, cancer and unwanted pregnancies just because they're supporting a different candidate from the same party? That's disheartening.
If you can't associate with anyone whose politics aren't 100% in line with your own, life will continue to be hard for you (see for example, the GOP).
If you can't associate with anyone whose politics aren't 100% in line with your own, life will continue to be hard for you (see for example, the GOP).
9
Ted Cruz and his supporters want to carpet bomb the Middle East and murder the wives and children of terrorists, so excuse me if I don't buy their sanctimonious claims about how sacred human life is to them.
74
It´s disconcerting the number of GOP women who turn a blind eye to the GOP´s extremist assault on women.
GOP congresswoman McMorris Rodgers for example voted against the Fair Pay Act insisting that women do get paid equally, and sees no problem with overturning roe vs wade taking away a woman´s right to choose or dismantling planned parenthood entirely, supports the personhood law essentially abolishing abortion entirely, and banning the pill through constitutional
amendment.
GOP congresswoman McMorris Rodgers for example voted against the Fair Pay Act insisting that women do get paid equally, and sees no problem with overturning roe vs wade taking away a woman´s right to choose or dismantling planned parenthood entirely, supports the personhood law essentially abolishing abortion entirely, and banning the pill through constitutional
amendment.
36
Let us not forget the wisdom that Rep. Blackburn from Tennessee brings to this issue, which would be all the wisdom she possesses, which is zero.
15
"Congress may not have succeeded in hobbling Planned Parenthood, but as these state attacks gain momentum, the result is reduced access to essential health care for millions of American women."
And this is not merely a women's issue. Women are men's significant others, sisters, daughters, and mothers.
And this is not merely a women's issue. Women are men's significant others, sisters, daughters, and mothers.
100
Women and their allies need to take a political stand and vote out those who would disempower females from making their own medical decisions. No one is "pro" abortion; however, it should be (and IS) an individual's right to decide what is right for her own physical and mental well-being. Forcing pregnancy on someone is always wrong. "Justice, justice you shall pursue!"
13
As argued elsewhere, attacks to defund Planned Parenthood are unconstitutional due to the prohibition against "bills of attainder". It is not the role of the legislative branch to deprive a person or entity of their liberty for penological purposes. That is the role of the judicial branch.
2
Sorry, but as much as I am a supporter of Planned Parenthood and of abortion rights, eliminating a particular provider from a list of healthcare providers eligible to receive Medicare, Medicaid or state reimbursement (which is what "defunding" planned parenthood really means) in no way constitutes a bill of attainder in contravention of the US Constitution.
2
What do these simpletons think? Do they believe that they will eliminate abortions? Half a century ago when it was illegal the hospitals were jammed with women who came in with complications from self-induced or victims from the butchers. The rich will just jump on a plane and go where it is legal to have this procedure. The poor will suffer which probably doesn't bother the anti-abortion crowd, but they will end up affecting everyone in terms of poverty, crime, and various other social costs.
You want to reduce abortions. Push birth control and sexual education and you will get results. And if you are against abortions, simply do not get one!
You want to reduce abortions. Push birth control and sexual education and you will get results. And if you are against abortions, simply do not get one!
29
Those that have defunded Planned Parenthood should be required to take in a special needs child who is severely handicapped and try to survive a month with that child on a welfare check.
While wondering about an untested possible STD.
While wondering about an untested possible STD.
25
If Plannd Parenthood was the only place men could obtain condoms, viagra, or vasectomies, they would be springing up all over the country!
31
The three current comments adjacent to the article are by men; where are those most affected by the issue. If women have an interest in this topic let them write, let them vote. That men belabor the issue is little different from those yell and jeer outside PP clinics
1
Know Nothing indeed. Most women who write comments here hide their gender behind gender neutral handles much like yours, Know Nothing. I understand, really I do. I've been tempted to obfuscate my gender on many occasions, such as the time that I commented on an article about the NRA and their strange allergy to measures that would enhance the safety of firearms only to be lectured by three male responseders touching on aspects of my personal use of contraception and/or abortion. It gets tiring.
6
Men use Planned Parenthood extensively, this is not just an issue for women. These clinics provide safe, compassionate, and scientifically
sound medical treatments for men and women who need STD
treatments, help understanding and using contraception, and general
well-being. Healthy men and women make healthy families.
Women and men of America I encourage you to vote in November to
run these know-nothings out of office everywhere they're found. All of us
will thank you.
sound medical treatments for men and women who need STD
treatments, help understanding and using contraception, and general
well-being. Healthy men and women make healthy families.
Women and men of America I encourage you to vote in November to
run these know-nothings out of office everywhere they're found. All of us
will thank you.
8
Congratulations on your magical mind-reading powers, Ashley Madison. Do you also bend forks with your thoughts at the sideshow?
By the way, "Ashley" is a unisex name. What are you hiding?
By the way, "Ashley" is a unisex name. What are you hiding?
2
Here's what Planned Parenthood does: it supplies healthcare to women who could not afford to go to a private doctor. They provide birth control, cancer screenings and a host of other health care that is first and foremost used by women. And this is why Planned Parenthood is being targeted. If women get control of their own bodies and lives they will not longer be controllable. And this, in a nushell, is what the demonizing of Planned Parenthood is all about. And it is never, ever about anything else.
37
So, how much of this rests at the feet of Democratic voters. In the mid-term elections in my state, the fewest Democrats voted in 60 years, and for the first time in 60 years we have a Republican controlled house in New Mexico. And what did they do? They attempted to adopt the same anti-woman bills that Texas did, only stopped by our Democratically controlled Senate. How long will that last? Our conservative Republican Governor would sign anti-woman bills in a heartbeat. Wake up Democrats, you are partly responsible for this by your own ignorance.
26
I don't understand why the Republican Party became the party of hate. They seem to hate women, the poor, immigrants and everyone else that isn't them. I am a strong Christian and the Bible that they the thump so loudly clearly states that we should take care of the needy in whatever form they appear. If a woman does not want a pregnancy, she shouldn't have sex? The last time I checked, men had something to do with that condition. Ergo, they should refrain from sex. Not likely to happen. To refuse women the medical care they need is to check your humanity at the door. To refuse to look at the facts of a situation and simply rely on your own prejudices is to check your brain at the door.
39
I hope this issue comes front and center in the upcoming election and accurate information is provided. I would also like to see Planned Parenthood aggressively sue the people and organizations that provide false information as defamation. Is false advertising the new norm in the US? Some things are a matter of opinion, but most things being said about Planned Parenthood are blatantly false and they should be able to get restraining orders to stop them immediately. I am not sure the GOP really wants to make this an active issue as they are likely to lose nearly all women of child-bearing age.
18
Planned Parenthood is exploiting the loophole in the tax laws that allows it to engage in political activities supporting liberal governments and liberal (progressive, anyone?) candidates for elections as long as it pretends political activities are not its PRINCIPAL raison-d'etre. Right now, PP has endorsed Hillary for president and I wonder why it cannot privately raise the money it needs to carry on with its 'health care' programs. Surely, liberal organizations such as Clinton Foundation and aficionados such as Tom Steyer and Soros can contribute to its operations. When there is a pressing need here as compelling as in Africa, I wonder why Gates Foundation cannot devote its resources to providing such services in our own homeland. After all, charity begins at home.
The long-term solution is that PP gets its funding from private sources, cut back the close to a million dollar salary for its Honcho-activist, and stop engaging in partisan political activities. To think that a group that blatantly supports Democrats, no matter what, will get the sympathy of Republican governments and governors is to be naive.
Why can't the Times ask its digital subscribers to send money to the group and support its causes besides supporting the PP with its own contributions? Why is government the solution to the problem?
The long-term solution is that PP gets its funding from private sources, cut back the close to a million dollar salary for its Honcho-activist, and stop engaging in partisan political activities. To think that a group that blatantly supports Democrats, no matter what, will get the sympathy of Republican governments and governors is to be naive.
Why can't the Times ask its digital subscribers to send money to the group and support its causes besides supporting the PP with its own contributions? Why is government the solution to the problem?
4
Government happens to be the most efficient way to fund essential public services, and it is much less subject to freeloading when competently run. Reproductive health care lowers the lifetime health care costs of all of the people.
10
PP used to have many a Republican on its board including the Bush family and plenty more in Texas before the religious fundamentalists running the GOP DECIDED to make political hackery its official stance towards women.
Every one of the GOP candidates has hopped on the religious fundamentalism train- that was their decision for cynical political reasons. Good Grief- even a child can see that.
Every one of the GOP candidates has hopped on the religious fundamentalism train- that was their decision for cynical political reasons. Good Grief- even a child can see that.
17
That "loophole," is called a PAC--and Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Karl Rove, and the rest of the theocrats and the right-wingers use them like crazy.
And do we really need to go through the list of government handouts and tax exemptions--the NFL and NRA spong to mong immediately--that you lot grab with both hands and a basket?
And do we really need to go through the list of government handouts and tax exemptions--the NFL and NRA spong to mong immediately--that you lot grab with both hands and a basket?
6
Politicians who support a group that is rewriting fairly tales to include weapons, like those used in the murder of the children in Newtown, are not concerned for the well being of US citizens. They are not pro-life. Making matters worse, they are supported by many Americans who believe in magical thinking--that the edited videos were true, even though they were proven to be false.
27
The assault on Planned Parenthood is an attack on working women, single mothers that need to work to support a family. It is apparent to me that Republicans want to keep women in the home raising kids, no matter if they want to or not, so they do not compete with men for menial jobs.
In short they seem to want to take us back to the 1930's, no unions, and women kept in Nursing, Teaching and Secretarial work.
Come on women, work for and vote for your own best interest.
Vote for Sanders.
In short they seem to want to take us back to the 1930's, no unions, and women kept in Nursing, Teaching and Secretarial work.
Come on women, work for and vote for your own best interest.
Vote for Sanders.
3
Why? Because the presidency is a man's job?
2
This is another Republican strategy to suppress the voters less likely to vote for them - by keeping the poor poorer so they are less likely to have the means to vote. Try taking time from one of two or three jobs to get an ID, to register, to vote. Single mothers have an even greater challenge - their predicament fully endorsed by those on the right taking away access to health care and as a means to control their reproductive selves. Debt is the new slavery, but intruding into someone's personal health is just as cruel.
7
Single mothers sure don't have much time to stand in lines waiting to vote.
8
Where is it made mandatory that taxpayers must subsidize this organization. Not that abortion should be make illegal, but those who utilize the service should be the ones picking up the tab.
Who pays for a child born into poverty?
Blood from a turnip?
Blood from a turnip?
4
So when you have your coronary from one too many cheeseburgers this summer, you'll of course decline to use your insurance, and pay for the bypass yourself, right? I mean, seeing as you are using the service...
4
It is in the national interest to preserve the rights of planned parenthood, including access to abortions. Citizens' rights trump the rights of the unborn, and therefore the non-citizen.
8
Witness the 'down ballot' effect of Fox News and company. On a national level---Bill O'Reilly maxes out at 3.5 million viewers, they're pretty much impotent. But further down on the ballot---from congressional races all the way down to local school boards, Fox et al has energized a very active political cadre. There's only one way to beat them---and that's for we lefties to stop talking so much and start organizing. Disinformation and rage-stoking by right-wing media is killing us on the local level.
7
You guys aren't fooling anyone. Planned Parenthood is not automatically entitled to public funds. No organisation is.
Planned Parenthood is a highly profitable abortion mill. If this supposedly indispensable organisation truly wants to serve women's health care using public funds without controversy, they should get out of the abortion business. Otherwise challenges like these will literally never end.
But PP will never get out of the abortion business, because abortion is what PP does.
Planned Parenthood is a highly profitable abortion mill. If this supposedly indispensable organisation truly wants to serve women's health care using public funds without controversy, they should get out of the abortion business. Otherwise challenges like these will literally never end.
But PP will never get out of the abortion business, because abortion is what PP does.
3
This is bunk. I am sorry if you prefer imaginary scenarios to facts.
Healthcare is not a religious charity- it is the right of American women to have the range of services that they deem necessary whether it suits you or not. Get a hobby if you want to get involved with something that requires no facts.
Healthcare is not a religious charity- it is the right of American women to have the range of services that they deem necessary whether it suits you or not. Get a hobby if you want to get involved with something that requires no facts.
12
"You guys aren't fooling anyone. Planned Parenthood is not automatically entitled to public funds. No organisation is."
Please review the Medicaid reimbursement process and governing regulations in your own time. The Code of Federal Regulations is a little daunting, but surely if you're smart enough to grace us with this brilliant insight into how Planned Parenthood should run its operations, you can muddle through.
"Planned Parenthood is a highly profitable abortion mill. If this supposedly indispensable organisation truly wants to serve women's health care using public funds without controversy, they should get out of the abortion business. Otherwise challenges like these will literally never end."
1.) Look up the definition of "non-profit organization."
2.) There is no such thing as an "abortion mill." You appear to be confused.
3.) You don't get to blame PP for "controversies" that you and your lousy ilk cause. Kinda like how you can't blame your wife for making you so mad that you hit her.
Please review the Medicaid reimbursement process and governing regulations in your own time. The Code of Federal Regulations is a little daunting, but surely if you're smart enough to grace us with this brilliant insight into how Planned Parenthood should run its operations, you can muddle through.
"Planned Parenthood is a highly profitable abortion mill. If this supposedly indispensable organisation truly wants to serve women's health care using public funds without controversy, they should get out of the abortion business. Otherwise challenges like these will literally never end."
1.) Look up the definition of "non-profit organization."
2.) There is no such thing as an "abortion mill." You appear to be confused.
3.) You don't get to blame PP for "controversies" that you and your lousy ilk cause. Kinda like how you can't blame your wife for making you so mad that you hit her.
10
PP is a nonprofit that accepts tax deductible donations. Do you want to take that away from it too?
9
This makes me so mad I want to scream. And if that makes my voice shrill, so be it. I am on a campaign to vote out every single one of these disgusting republican neanderthals who believe that women are less. The republican party has truly disintegrated to one of disgust, stupidity and hate. They are completely irrational. We as a Nation cannot let them continue.
22
We must stop this nonsense. We must elect senators and representatives and a president who will support single payer health care. Then there will be no need for agencies that come to the aid of women who lack the financial means to get health care when and where they choose.
These attacks on Planned Parenthood aren't attacks on women; they're attacks on poor women.
These attacks on Planned Parenthood aren't attacks on women; they're attacks on poor women.
8
I'm confused. I thought the big issue was protecting women's health which made it necessary to close down abortion clinics. Wouldn't this be an issue with these alternative suppliers?
3
That men want to control women's reproductive rights is getting simply tiring. Leave us alone to make our own decisions.
17
Women can change that in one huge election swing by voting for a woman in the WH and for another 100 in Congress and the state legislatures. The result will be a sea state change in women's rights and a better America. Until that happens, nibbling around the edges promotes more of the same nonsense.
10
Just wish Republicans would thwart the sale of guns with as much fervor as they thwart poor women's access to reproductive rights. For Republicans, the right to bear arms is sacrosanct but a woman's right to control her body is infringed upon. How disingenuous it is to hear Republicans talk of equality and justice for all!
31
It is sad to see the NYT justify funding of PP based on the fact that abortions are only a fraction of the services they provide. Such positioning only promotes further vilification of women who seek abortions as well as scientifically and logically absurd theories around the supposed personhood of a fetus.
Abortion is legal, sometimes necessary, but most importantly nobody's business but the pregnant woman's.
Ange
Abortion is legal, sometimes necessary, but most importantly nobody's business but the pregnant woman's.
Ange
14
As any performer of stage tricks knows, you need to mislead your audience with distracting signals.
So it is with Republican candidates as they repeatedly misdirect their credulous followers with issues that lead away from what is really happening: Republicans are eating their lunch and at the same time picking their pockets.
Every contrived and contentious issue: abortion, gun rights, foreign enemies, tree huggers, public assistance, people of color, sexual orientation and now women’s contraception, is a distraction from Republican’s real agenda to take every last nickel from the makers of our society, the producers, and to appropriate wealth to the elite owner/leisure class.
This is a trick as old as politics itself.
So it is with Republican candidates as they repeatedly misdirect their credulous followers with issues that lead away from what is really happening: Republicans are eating their lunch and at the same time picking their pockets.
Every contrived and contentious issue: abortion, gun rights, foreign enemies, tree huggers, public assistance, people of color, sexual orientation and now women’s contraception, is a distraction from Republican’s real agenda to take every last nickel from the makers of our society, the producers, and to appropriate wealth to the elite owner/leisure class.
This is a trick as old as politics itself.
156
This process offers a clear window onto Republican reactionary politics at work.
First, there's the acting in an evidence-free environment. In fact, in this instance they go one step further: they act when the evidence directly opposes their reasons for acting.
The reason for their doing this is the rightist authoritarians' need to hew to the ideological line. The entire purpose of these laws is to restrict abortion - an agenda being in enacted in the GOP-controlled states by a variety of TRAP laws - and it has nothing to do with what Planned Parenthood actually does.
Second, there's the complete lack of concern for the health of millions people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. In GOP World, these people are takers and moochers and deserve their fate. We saw the same attitude manifest in a GOP debate in the 2012 election when people cheered the idea of the uninsured dying in the streets, and we see it in the refusal of GOP governors to extend Medicaid in their states. As a result of the latter choice, it is estimated that thousands of people have actually died due to their inability to access treatment (1,000 in Idaho alone). The GOP is the real organizer of Death Panels.
If you like the look that landscape, vote GOP in November. If, like most sane people, you are appalled by it, you know what to do.
First, there's the acting in an evidence-free environment. In fact, in this instance they go one step further: they act when the evidence directly opposes their reasons for acting.
The reason for their doing this is the rightist authoritarians' need to hew to the ideological line. The entire purpose of these laws is to restrict abortion - an agenda being in enacted in the GOP-controlled states by a variety of TRAP laws - and it has nothing to do with what Planned Parenthood actually does.
Second, there's the complete lack of concern for the health of millions people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. In GOP World, these people are takers and moochers and deserve their fate. We saw the same attitude manifest in a GOP debate in the 2012 election when people cheered the idea of the uninsured dying in the streets, and we see it in the refusal of GOP governors to extend Medicaid in their states. As a result of the latter choice, it is estimated that thousands of people have actually died due to their inability to access treatment (1,000 in Idaho alone). The GOP is the real organizer of Death Panels.
If you like the look that landscape, vote GOP in November. If, like most sane people, you are appalled by it, you know what to do.
7
I did a quick scroll through the comments. A goodly proportion of the comments are by men. It WAS a quick scroll and I only found one male name associated with a posting that was against PP. I wonder how many men out there are actually using contraceptive protection. Or does this fall into the category of, "you had it last so you deal with it?"
I believe PP should exist sole on the donations made to it by those who strongly support its mission statement. The Federal Gov't should not be in the business of selecting which health care organizations to support. If every one who spent time in comments supporting PP with their tax deductible donations, the question of any government support would be moot.
I believe PP should exist sole on the donations made to it by those who strongly support its mission statement. The Federal Gov't should not be in the business of selecting which health care organizations to support. If every one who spent time in comments supporting PP with their tax deductible donations, the question of any government support would be moot.
The federal government does not "support" Planned Parenthood per se, they are a qualified provider of certain medical services as are many other qualified providers. Many of these providers are reimbursed for covered medical care by the federal government PP just happens to be in the crosshairs because they are large and an easy target. There are many other health care providers out there that provide similar services, they are just no so noticeable.
4
"The Federal Gov't should not be in the business of selecting which health care organizations to support."
Yet ANOTHER person who needs to review Medicaid regulations. Unreal.
Yet ANOTHER person who needs to review Medicaid regulations. Unreal.
7
There seems to be a strong link between the Republican Party and certain religious groups that are almost fanatical in their opposition to abortion and contraception. This mutual admiration society is beneficial to both sides: the religious groups gain a reliable partner in what they consider to be a righteous, moral crusade, and the Republicans collect their due on election day as their friends in the religious community round up like-minded believers. This alliance has existed for many years, but has now become even more focused on these two issues. The worsening prospect for women's health detailed in this editorial are far less important to Republican lawmakers than the prospect of winning the next election--with a little help from their friends.
5
The board is extremely disingenuous when it says the charges were bogus. I think there is no disagreement that PP is selling fetal tissue. It might be true that they are not selling them for profit, but that was never the claim. The illegality is in the profit however, and so people like those on the board here will try to imply that in fact fetal tissue is not being sold. This is not true. The goal of the videos is to make the public aware that PP is selling fetal tissue; this goal is necessary because "investigatory" news services such as the NYT will never bring this story to the public, as it is not in line with their political ideology.
1
As any performer of stage tricks knows, you need to mislead your audience with distracting signals.
So it is with Republican candidates as they repeatedly misdirect their credulous followers with issues that lead away from what is really happening: Republicans are eating their lunch and at the same time picking their pockets.
Every contrived and contentious issue: abortion, gun rights, foreign enemies, tree huggers, public assistance, people of color, sexual orientation and now women’s contraception, is a distraction from Republican’s real agenda to take every last nickel from the makers of our society, the producers, and to appropriate wealth to the elite owner/leisure class.
This is a trick as old as politics itself.
So it is with Republican candidates as they repeatedly misdirect their credulous followers with issues that lead away from what is really happening: Republicans are eating their lunch and at the same time picking their pockets.
Every contrived and contentious issue: abortion, gun rights, foreign enemies, tree huggers, public assistance, people of color, sexual orientation and now women’s contraception, is a distraction from Republican’s real agenda to take every last nickel from the makers of our society, the producers, and to appropriate wealth to the elite owner/leisure class.
This is a trick as old as politics itself.
1
Here's a modest proposal: If Republicans are going to force women to continue with pregnancies they do not want to carry, I'd suggest that any man who has fathered more than one child he is not supporting be required by law to undergo a vasectomy (at his own expense).
10
On a purely financial level, this state action is monumentally stupid. Close Planned Parenthood, and the women in need of healthcare will show up in emergency rooms, sicker, and requiring more expensive assistance. Nice going GOP.
12
Though its not 'a game in which I have any skin', the entiire matter of PP and the political assault against it is really nothing but an example of the length to which the uber-zealous Republican 'Religious Fanatics' will go to impose their religious-persuasions on the entire nation. Its a campaign of politically-inspired tyranny which is totally inappropriate for the Federal Government to advocate, and has nothing whatever to do with 'governance'. If anything, it is an clear indication of the need to summarily and permanently rescind the tax-exemptions religious-organizations have enjoyed for so long!
15
From what I have seen since Nixon was exposed for what he really was the GOP will only do anything they do if there is proof it harms unnecessarily those most needy and powerless to protect themselves from that harm. Everything they do is set up with traps and conditions that let them off the hook in their own minds and prevents the rest of us from correcting the mistakes they make or to stop the intentional harm they are inflicting. It is literally reflex action in them even when speaking off the cuff everything they say is conditional on being allowed to do as they please and not be held to account for it or the effect it has in any way.
2
The results of these laws is appalling and has long range implications. An increase in the birth rate among poor women, an increase in people with HIV and the reduction in testing and treatment for other sexually transmitted infections are consequences that the lawmakers refuse to see or are too single minded and callous to care about. The states will pay for the prenatal and postpartum care of the pregnant women and the care and education of the women's babies and children. The states will pay for the results of untreated STI's and HIV. Women unable to find childcare and therefore a job, women unable to finish school due to an unintended pregnancy.....the list goes on. It is a shameful situation.
9
At what point will women realize this is an assault on their rights and have had enough? Once lost, the fight to get those rights back is formidable and may take decades to do so. Daughters and granddaughters will suffer because we’re allowing this to happen now. Suffragettes are rolling in their graves. Longtime women's advocates, having narrowed the gap on access to healthcare, jobs, pay parity, and equal treatment in the military, wonder why women will accept any reversal.The core issue is whether women’s rights can be dismissed easily by some state legislatures. Sadly, so far, it appears they can.
22
There is another issue here: the responsibility of being an American. One of the aims of limited government was to protect the rights of all, even the minority, from the rule of the majority. With abortion we have debate and disagreement, and such is right in a free society. But those who seek to use government and legislation to impose their view against the freedoms of those with whom they disagree, they are acting against the ideals of this country. Or put more simply:
Stopping women getting to a doctor, is not what the founders intended: stop abusing our system of government.
Stopping women getting to a doctor, is not what the founders intended: stop abusing our system of government.
5
What is it, exactly, that the Republicans hate about people, especially women, even more especially the most vulnerable among us? What is their problem with reproductive health? From well-documented personal behavior, they seem to love sex. Indeed, what is their problem with health in general? Why does spiting President Obama warrant a higher priority than decent health care in GOP-dominated states that have spurned Medicaid expansion?
These questions defy defy rational explanation. Only some parallel universe of insanity can explain such mindlessly obtuse, hurtful, perpetual political pique.
www.endthemadnessnow.org
These questions defy defy rational explanation. Only some parallel universe of insanity can explain such mindlessly obtuse, hurtful, perpetual political pique.
www.endthemadnessnow.org
6
A more accurate headline: The State Assault on Women and the First Amendment.
All of the opponents of Planned Parenthood have a common goal: to prevent women from controlling their own bodies, from privacy in their healthcare choices, and to impose their religious beliefs upon women.
The very idea that anyone has the authority to deprive a gender of scientifically valid treatments, of education, and of birth control should be abhorrent to all Americans who understand the First and Fourth Amendments. Imposing the biology of the thirteenth century on the medical community should be laughed out of court.
A state government that adopts the religious beliefs of any religion and creates law to foster those beliefs is in violation of the First Amendment. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." recognizes the danger of theocracy, shariah law, and guarantees the free exercise of religion, including those that do not believe that a fetus is a person or that it has a soul. When scientific evidence proves that 2/3 of all embryos fail to develop, the 13th century religious notion that souls or personhood is achieved at conception collapses.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons..... against unreasonable searches... shall not be violated,," prevents government from interfering with the person of all Americans, including women.
Planned Parenthood is subject to religious tyranny in this instance.
All of the opponents of Planned Parenthood have a common goal: to prevent women from controlling their own bodies, from privacy in their healthcare choices, and to impose their religious beliefs upon women.
The very idea that anyone has the authority to deprive a gender of scientifically valid treatments, of education, and of birth control should be abhorrent to all Americans who understand the First and Fourth Amendments. Imposing the biology of the thirteenth century on the medical community should be laughed out of court.
A state government that adopts the religious beliefs of any religion and creates law to foster those beliefs is in violation of the First Amendment. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." recognizes the danger of theocracy, shariah law, and guarantees the free exercise of religion, including those that do not believe that a fetus is a person or that it has a soul. When scientific evidence proves that 2/3 of all embryos fail to develop, the 13th century religious notion that souls or personhood is achieved at conception collapses.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons..... against unreasonable searches... shall not be violated,," prevents government from interfering with the person of all Americans, including women.
Planned Parenthood is subject to religious tyranny in this instance.
9
This war on women by the Republican and Christian right wing is designed to punish women for being sexual beings. It's about men who indulge in their insecurities and shame, and project those onto women, and then punish them. This war is designed to create an economic underclass that then may be used and abused by the more wealthy white males. Notice that many minimum wage jobs are held by women. These days, remarkably, some employers steal those minimum wages from their employers. Employees have lost their rights to fair pay and fair working hours. The right wing would return our nation to the time of the Robber Barons, with sweatshops, poverty, massive unemployment, uneducated children fending for themselves in the streets, people without food or shelter. This is the Republican dream. It is about white male control of the the nation's wealth and populace through oppression. We should not be fooled by any rhetoric. The goal is oppression of the many by the few, and oppression of women simply because we exist.
Donate and sign petitions at http://www.plannedparenthood.org
Donate and sign petitions at http://www.plannedparenthood.org
8
Maybe when the nomination settles the President could get off his lofty dais and work to get out the vote and work for voter registration.
Women are a majority in almost every state.
The democratic party won't do that at this time for fear of aiding Sanders who seems to benefit from increased turnout.
They may be throwing women and their families who need and utilize Planned Parenthood's services under the bus to assure the nomination of Clinton.
People like Emilys list are wasting resources that could be better used elsewhere in primary fights against men who have been staunch defenders of reproductive rights (Edwards vs Van Hollen in Md) solely because they lack a vagina. Donna Edwards will like lose in a statewide senatorial election. The vagina won the primary and the new senator (R) uses a urinal.
The women need to get their act in gear and on the road for the sake of themselves and their families. Their quiet acquiescence has allowed this to happen.
Women are a majority in almost every state.
The democratic party won't do that at this time for fear of aiding Sanders who seems to benefit from increased turnout.
They may be throwing women and their families who need and utilize Planned Parenthood's services under the bus to assure the nomination of Clinton.
People like Emilys list are wasting resources that could be better used elsewhere in primary fights against men who have been staunch defenders of reproductive rights (Edwards vs Van Hollen in Md) solely because they lack a vagina. Donna Edwards will like lose in a statewide senatorial election. The vagina won the primary and the new senator (R) uses a urinal.
The women need to get their act in gear and on the road for the sake of themselves and their families. Their quiet acquiescence has allowed this to happen.
2
The NY Times may choose to label "Pro-Life" attempts to undermine Planned Parenthood as an "assault", but this is surely too simplistic--an emotional appeal to its left-wing base.
A more intelligent treatment would discuss the role of Roe Vs. Wade--the unconstitutional overreach by the Supreme Court to find constitutional freedoms our Founding Fathers never intended.
Roe Vs. Wade was an illegitimate and unfortunate decision. Because so many Americans do not respect the court's findings, because it was such an obvious attempt to legislate from the bench, it has lead to hundreds of attempts by individual states to undermine and invalidate it. Had the court rightfully determined this to be a States Rights issue, citizens in each state would be free to decide whether or not abortion should be legal or not.
If an assault has truly been committed, it's the trammeling of our Constitution, and states rights by the Supreme Court--and not any affront to Planned Parenthood. This never had to happen--and if not, perhaps some of 60 million innocent lives ended since Roe Vs. Wade may have been saved.
A more intelligent treatment would discuss the role of Roe Vs. Wade--the unconstitutional overreach by the Supreme Court to find constitutional freedoms our Founding Fathers never intended.
Roe Vs. Wade was an illegitimate and unfortunate decision. Because so many Americans do not respect the court's findings, because it was such an obvious attempt to legislate from the bench, it has lead to hundreds of attempts by individual states to undermine and invalidate it. Had the court rightfully determined this to be a States Rights issue, citizens in each state would be free to decide whether or not abortion should be legal or not.
If an assault has truly been committed, it's the trammeling of our Constitution, and states rights by the Supreme Court--and not any affront to Planned Parenthood. This never had to happen--and if not, perhaps some of 60 million innocent lives ended since Roe Vs. Wade may have been saved.
4
Those "innocent lives" would have been aborted anyway, regardless of whether the woman having the abortion lived in a state where it was legal or not. Making abortion illegal does NOT stop abortion. We have one hundred years of data from 1870 to 1970 proving that. A lot more women would be dead or maimed and a lot more children left motherless as a result, but that doesn't seem to get on the so-called pro-life agenda.
5
American women are under NO obligation to support the pro-theocracy views of a religious minority.
If religious women and men prefer doctrinal strictures on their healthcare they should arrange to get that, not try to make other people take on their chosen belief systems. That you prefer to believe that a fertilized egg is a full grown human is your business. That you strain to make it a healthcare political chip for American women is absurd.
If religious women and men prefer doctrinal strictures on their healthcare they should arrange to get that, not try to make other people take on their chosen belief systems. That you prefer to believe that a fertilized egg is a full grown human is your business. That you strain to make it a healthcare political chip for American women is absurd.
7
"This never had to happen--and if not, perhaps some of 60 million innocent lives ended since Roe Vs. Wade may have been saved."
And after you write this I'm supposed to believe your previous assertion that anti-choicers are upset simply because they didn't like the reasoning behind Roe? Please.
And after you write this I'm supposed to believe your previous assertion that anti-choicers are upset simply because they didn't like the reasoning behind Roe? Please.
7
This is the quintessential example of "Death by a Thousand Cuts."
And it is a continuation of that slogging assault by the Evangelical Movement on "A Women's Right To Choose." This attack is so disruptive to the everyday, ordinary lives of women, and men, and should be called out for what it is: over-the-top primitive thinking. And it is a short stone's throw away from what fueled Burning Witches at the stake those centuries ago.
And one of the worst parts of this travesty, this assault on sexuality is that we all know what's going on here. And the only way to change it is voting out these primitives and replacing them with office holders with a realistic mindset.
The recent elevation off Marsha Blackburn to head a committee to investigate the Fetal Tissue Issue is absolutely incredible. That woman has all the reasoning powers of a log. I can't stand it. This is so absolutely crazy. I went through the roof when they went after Dan Rather and got away with it. He should have sued for slander. Why do we let them get away with how they are chipping away at what should be the obvious evolutionary process. They'll have us losing our limbs, turning them into flippers and fins as we devolve and slip back into the oceans. (And no, not in five thousand years.)
And it is a continuation of that slogging assault by the Evangelical Movement on "A Women's Right To Choose." This attack is so disruptive to the everyday, ordinary lives of women, and men, and should be called out for what it is: over-the-top primitive thinking. And it is a short stone's throw away from what fueled Burning Witches at the stake those centuries ago.
And one of the worst parts of this travesty, this assault on sexuality is that we all know what's going on here. And the only way to change it is voting out these primitives and replacing them with office holders with a realistic mindset.
The recent elevation off Marsha Blackburn to head a committee to investigate the Fetal Tissue Issue is absolutely incredible. That woman has all the reasoning powers of a log. I can't stand it. This is so absolutely crazy. I went through the roof when they went after Dan Rather and got away with it. He should have sued for slander. Why do we let them get away with how they are chipping away at what should be the obvious evolutionary process. They'll have us losing our limbs, turning them into flippers and fins as we devolve and slip back into the oceans. (And no, not in five thousand years.)
5
At least throughout the span of my long lifetime and probably longer, Republican candidates have sought to prosper by raising the specter of various bogeymen. The "Red Menace." The "effete corps of impudent snobs." The "War on Drugs." And now terrorists, immigrants, and Planned Parenthood.
They harp on the negative emotions of fear and hatred to divide us in a manner that they believe might result in a split that causes fevered motivation to vote in numbers that favor their chances to succeed.
"Planned Parenthood" has become a rallying cry for these ignorant haters and a means by which Republican candidates and officeholders tan whip up their minions into a tizzy.
It is just a form of demagoguery that has been practiced at least since Greek and Roman times. Education is the antidote, but that is another bogeyman that often comes under Republican attack.
They harp on the negative emotions of fear and hatred to divide us in a manner that they believe might result in a split that causes fevered motivation to vote in numbers that favor their chances to succeed.
"Planned Parenthood" has become a rallying cry for these ignorant haters and a means by which Republican candidates and officeholders tan whip up their minions into a tizzy.
It is just a form of demagoguery that has been practiced at least since Greek and Roman times. Education is the antidote, but that is another bogeyman that often comes under Republican attack.
6
I support the right of women to medical privacy and their right to control their own bodies and am disgusted by the so-called right-to-life movement and their tactics. However, I am against the use of public money to fund any activities of Planned Parenthood- especially as their PAC has been playing in electoral politics by endorsing Hillary Clinton.
I am generally opposed to giving public money to any private group and would prefer the government perform such services directly or offer choice to those who receive the help of any assistance program. I am opposed to any organization that receives a penny of public money or tax exempt status playing in politics and I do not accept the artifice of a PAC shielding Planned Parenthood from their partisan political activities.
Further, if the Federal Government operated family planning clinics directly they could ignore the state laws designed to impede legal medical practices as they would not be subject to the rules of a subordinate unit of government.
Planned Parenthood needs to get off of the government dime and stay out of politics.
I am generally opposed to giving public money to any private group and would prefer the government perform such services directly or offer choice to those who receive the help of any assistance program. I am opposed to any organization that receives a penny of public money or tax exempt status playing in politics and I do not accept the artifice of a PAC shielding Planned Parenthood from their partisan political activities.
Further, if the Federal Government operated family planning clinics directly they could ignore the state laws designed to impede legal medical practices as they would not be subject to the rules of a subordinate unit of government.
Planned Parenthood needs to get off of the government dime and stay out of politics.
1
"However, I am against the use of public money to fund any activities of Planned Parenthood- especially as their PAC has been playing in electoral politics by endorsing Hillary Clinton.
. . .
I am generally opposed to giving public money to any private group and would prefer the government perform such services directly or offer choice to those who receive the help of any assistance program"
Please feel free to google the Medicaid reimbursement process and governing regulations on your own time. The Code of Federal Regulations is your friend.
. . .
I am generally opposed to giving public money to any private group and would prefer the government perform such services directly or offer choice to those who receive the help of any assistance program"
Please feel free to google the Medicaid reimbursement process and governing regulations on your own time. The Code of Federal Regulations is your friend.
8
So, you refuse to use private doctors and dentists who accept medicare and medicaid? You refuse to go to a privately run hospital that also accept government money I doubt it but you oppose Planned Parenthood's receipt of federal money? How do you justify your position on Planned Parenthood?
4
Why does taxpayer money go to Planned Parenthood anyway? With the ACA, medicaid etc., PP should be self funding while competing in the market place.
Abortion is only actual health care when the mother's or child's health/life is in danger. Abortion in these situations is a totally appropriate health care option. Abortion in the case of rape or incest is also appropriate health care, due to possible incest related deformaties to the child and the psychological damage that occurs after a woman is raped or abused by a family member.
However, voluntary abortions are not health care but rather a personal, economic or social decision. In the public health care funding arena voluntary abortions are no more a form of heath care than a vasectomy, and should not be taxpayer funded.
Abortion is only actual health care when the mother's or child's health/life is in danger. Abortion in these situations is a totally appropriate health care option. Abortion in the case of rape or incest is also appropriate health care, due to possible incest related deformaties to the child and the psychological damage that occurs after a woman is raped or abused by a family member.
However, voluntary abortions are not health care but rather a personal, economic or social decision. In the public health care funding arena voluntary abortions are no more a form of heath care than a vasectomy, and should not be taxpayer funded.
1
Hyde amendment. Google it on your own time.
I wish I could understand why men---who clearly have no idea what they're talking about (see above)--- feel fit to comment on women's health care.
I wish I could understand why men---who clearly have no idea what they're talking about (see above)--- feel fit to comment on women's health care.
7
"Why does taxpayer money go to Planned Parenthood anyway?With the ACA, medicaid etc., PP should be self funding while competing in the market place."
........ Medicaid *is* how PP gets "taxpayer money." *headdesk.*
Why do so many men feel the need to comment on women's health care when they don't know the very first thing about the issues?
........ Medicaid *is* how PP gets "taxpayer money." *headdesk.*
Why do so many men feel the need to comment on women's health care when they don't know the very first thing about the issues?
2
Republican politicians seek to eliminate PP for the following reasons: (1) to control the sexual lives of women, especially poor women, and; (2) to reduce and eventually eliminate Medicaid funding. These moves are coupled with (3) new onerous voting rules that make it difficult for poor people to vote. Since women with money can get abortions, have private health insurance, and can easily find places to vote, we can only assume that Republican politicians find the poor a loathsome burden to be condemned and controlled. This has nothing to do with love of the unborn, folks.
13
Finally an article about the Republican assault on women! At least DT stated Planned Parenthood provides essentially services; the two remaining candidates, Cruz and Kasich, are much further to the right on this issue, and are willing to use laws to ban not only abortion, but also access to contraception and information about reproduction. When will people get it? It is not, and has never been, solely about abortion - it is about controlling sexuality and sexual expression, it is about shaming women for being sexual beings, it is about believing that a woman's body is inherently sinful and wrong, that merely being a woman is inferior, shameful, and wrong.
11
For many who are against abortion (if Planned Parenthood is included in this debate then so be it), it isn't any war against women (as the pro choice would have characterized) or an attempt to make those who are poor or black or disadvantaged suffer. It is simply a firm belief that that a woman's pregnancy, at any stage of development, contains the seeds of life, a human life. It is this belief that this human seed of life is much more than any science or law or practical, personal need can adequately define. For those that truly believe that life, human life begins at conception, abortion isn't seen as a mere medical procedure to be undertaken for convenience, or practicality or because "it's my body , my right", but something more profoundly disturbing and wrong.
5
Which is a purely religious position, and, the last time I checked, we have a First Amendment that protects those of us who don't share your beliefs from having the government impose them on us.
8
But, by and large the anti-abortion people are pro death penalty and are against using goverment money to support those children born under their policies. Seems to be extremely hypocritical to be.
10
Sorry, under the US Constitution, Congress is denied any power to respect your faith-based beliefs in any legislation.
6
I suppose that these states's's legislators and governors are ready to approve budgets that include monies targeted for entitlement programs that would provide support for the increase in babies born to mothers who do not have the means to feed, clothe, and otherwise support the babies born as a result of unplanned pregnancies because PP was defunded? How about emergency/urgent care needed for those women who try to self-induce abortions because the state is forcing them to bear a child? How about the burden on the tax payers since there are likely to be more children in the schools? How about the foster care systems because women and families hit by economic, social, and mental health hardships will no longer be able to care for their children? I'd bet many these governors also chose not to accept the expansion of Medicaid in their states so that there will be more families who use emergency rooms as their primary care doctors because they can't afford to use preventative health measures due to the cost of additional children.
12
It is 2016, right, not 1952? Why does the Republican party want to take women's issues backwards in time? What's next, requiring your husband's credit info to get a credit card issued in your own name, firing women upon learning they are pregnant, refusing to issue mortgages to single women, denying women the vote? No sensible women should vote Republican. Only Democrats want to preserve, and expand, women's rights and champion a woman's right to control her own destiny. Women, don't hand over your rights to political and religious bullies. Vote D!
9
Thank you Planned Parenthood for keeping strength and doing your job in face of utter incompetent GOP
- Why is it that every road built by GOP is leading towards the destruction of US (USA)?
- Why is it that every road built by GOP is leading towards the destruction of US (USA)?
7
Behold the shadow government ALEC at work. The workings of the American Legislative Exchange Council should be page one news every day yet they are ignored or unrecognized by most news outlets.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/07/12895/attack-planned-parenthood-view...
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/07/12895/attack-planned-parenthood-view...
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
4
I'm ok with the services Planned Parenthood provides. My disagreement is with all the "programs" that the Ferderal Government has gotten itself into that cause all this useless back and forth conversations and infighting.
Tax money comes from the people. Cut the taxes and let the people who want to support their causes like Planned Parenthood support them. I'm tied of our politicians acting like they are some kind of champions for the people. Problem solved.
Tax money comes from the people. Cut the taxes and let the people who want to support their causes like Planned Parenthood support them. I'm tied of our politicians acting like they are some kind of champions for the people. Problem solved.
Twenty years ago Planned Parenthood was not an issue, now Republicans have made it into one. What is going on with that party, have the crazies truly taken it over.
7
I stood with over a dozen people two Saturdays in a row for 40 days for life across from the Planned Parenthood facility on Bleeker Street in Manhattan recently. It was something I had to do after being pro-life for so many years. It was rewarding and the people who were with me were well educated and articulate individuals who valued and cherished life. They could not fathom taking away the innocent life of an unborn child. Some people scoffed and laughed but we ignored their insults. We were there for a good cause -- to end the abhorrent act of abortion. One young woman came up to us and thanked us for our efforts. She would have joined in but had made a previous appointment. If one individual appreciates our efforts; and if we can save innocent life, we have gained a lot.
2
Theocracy may your choice but under the Constitution you may not require your preference for a state religion of other Americans. Period.
Adopting the orthodox fundamentalisms and religious interpretations of another American's religious group is no way is a requirement for American women.
13
You are pro birth but are your really pro life? Do you support tax dollars paying for these children? Are you against sending them to war? Are you against the PDeath penalty? Are you for government funded medical care for all people? If your answer is "No" to any of these then you are not "Pro-Life." you are merely anti-abortion.
5
I like that you credit yourselves with "saving" lives, when all you're really doing is browbeating women into doing the actual heavy lifting. What have you actually done for these women, huh? Stand outside with duct tape over your mouths and some hyperbolic sign? Wow, what a sacrifice you've made for the lives you "cherish." Meanwhile, you're demanding that women sacrifice their bodies, health, relationships, finances, and educations so that you can feel like you saved a bayyyyyyyyyyybeeeeee!1.
Must be nice and comfortable to try to force others to take a difficult path when *you* will never, ever have to take it.
Must be nice and comfortable to try to force others to take a difficult path when *you* will never, ever have to take it.
7
Planned Parenthood saves the unborn, saves babies, saves mothers. So, anyone who cuts funding to Planned Parenthood kills the unborn, kills babies, kills mothers.
8
The Equal Access Law passed in 1984 has required public schools to permit student-initiated religious study groups. There are other stipulations that require the club to be located in a secondary school, be student initiated, meet after school hours and not be disruptive. The law has also been used as a means of requiring schools to permit meetings of gay-straight alliances. But it has been turned into a double-edged sword in Indiana and elsewhere to deny women and men access to the public health services unrelated to abortion to be provided by Planned Parenthood. In one county, the closing of the Planned Parenthood clinic, the only place that provided HIV testing in IN, was followed by a predicable outbreak of HIV. First in Flint MI, the state government is using fund cutting to provide poisoned water to a mostly African American city. Now it is being used where Planned Parenthood to create outbreaks of HIV in mostly minority and economically deprived citizens. If the GOP were truly the party of traditional family values, benevolent and protective of citizens' rights under the Constitution, it would demand that the persecution of ethnic minorities and the poor be eliminated, if on moral and ethical grounds alone. Depriving citizens of their rights due to altered videos that have been found to have been in violation of the law in a court in TX is outrageous. If the GOP mascot, the elephant is dead and in the middle of the room we know who to thank. The GOP of course!
4
Not a smidgen of corruption.
Carly Fiorina's lies about PlannedcParenthood will live on long passed this election.
Crucial healthcare services are being lost due to propoganda being sold as ethics.
Crucial healthcare services are being lost due to propoganda being sold as ethics.
10
Fine, Republicans, and some Democrats too, make abortion illegal again -there will still be abortions but they will be dangerous and women will die (that woman could be your wife, daughter, sister cousin). Stop access to contraception - then we can have more unplanned pregnancies and more illegal abortions. This is truly a great platform to campaign on. And how inspiring the US will look to the rest of the world. No Sharia law here; just insane law. And by the way, we are no longer the United States of America. Your access to healthcare and education that discusses real issues like evolution and climate change, etc. are an accident of the state where you are born and live. The UNITED States is over and I am in despair.
14
Indiana has now passed a law prohibiting abortion in cases where the fetus has Down Syndrome or some other defect.
Will the same people who would force the woman to become the mother of a 24-7 child who will never grow into an independent person help her get the medical and other help she will need to survive? No. She should have thought about that before she had sex.
When she quits her job to care for this child because she doesn't earn enough to pay for the higher level of care needed, will they be there to help? No. She should have thought about that before she had sex.
When she needs psychological services to cope with the depression and despair that comes from the destruction of her hopes and dreams, will they pay to help her? No. She should have thought about that before she had sex.
Many folks will surely write in to say what a blessing their Down Syndrome baby was for them, and that is lovely. They need to know that is not a universal response.
At some point women are going to realize that in the brave new Republican world, sex is just too expensive. In a world of wonderful scientific advances and practices, we are choosing an approach to women's health care straight out of the thirteenth century. It makes one want to cry.
Will the same people who would force the woman to become the mother of a 24-7 child who will never grow into an independent person help her get the medical and other help she will need to survive? No. She should have thought about that before she had sex.
When she quits her job to care for this child because she doesn't earn enough to pay for the higher level of care needed, will they be there to help? No. She should have thought about that before she had sex.
When she needs psychological services to cope with the depression and despair that comes from the destruction of her hopes and dreams, will they pay to help her? No. She should have thought about that before she had sex.
Many folks will surely write in to say what a blessing their Down Syndrome baby was for them, and that is lovely. They need to know that is not a universal response.
At some point women are going to realize that in the brave new Republican world, sex is just too expensive. In a world of wonderful scientific advances and practices, we are choosing an approach to women's health care straight out of the thirteenth century. It makes one want to cry.
21
So unsurprisingly we see an increase in birth rates among poor woman, and this is happening almost exclusively in red states (where many also block Medicaid expansion under the ACA). This will be a drag on the economies of those red states and who will they turn for help? Well the Federal government of course. I'm tired of seeing my blue state taxes flowing to the red states (but that is the direction those dollar go).
14
I recall that about 10 years back, the biology professor and science blogger PZ Meyers put up side-by-side pictures of early stage human and chicken embryos and posed the question: which has an eternal soul and which makes tasty McNuggets?
Only a Republican can tell for sure.
Only a Republican can tell for sure.
12
These prohibitionist laws, their sponsors and the voters who enable the politicians who enact these laws are morally bankrupt anti-feminist and anti-democracy bullies who, often cloaked in self-justifying religious garb and false high-mindedness, will continue to act until challenged and defeated at the polls and in courts. There is no compelling reason or basis, in this democracy, for this government assault on women and their families. There are very compelling reasons, especially under our Constitution, to allow women to make their choices and have access to both legal abortion and health services.
10
Access for all to safe, reliable, low cost services for health screenings (HIV, eg), birth control, pregnancy screenings, abortions should be available in all states for all people. Since women suffer the most when these falter, it is most important that women maintain access to the services provided by Planned Parenthood and similar organizations.
My reproductive health should not be controlled by the state. Access to full reproductive health services is a necessity.
My reproductive health should not be controlled by the state. Access to full reproductive health services is a necessity.
22
Nothing epitomizes the Republican war against women as their war against Planned Parenthood. Nothing.
Back in the 70's, female college students I knew heavily used the services of Planned Parenthood for their reproductive health and contraception services. It was like going to the doctor. No stigma. As students, they didn't have much money and the clinics took care of them. Students that were from out of town were separated from the family doctor and the clinic was down the street.
Something happened between then and now. Every woman's reproductive organs have now become property of the state. Women no longer have rights to privacy concerning what they do with their bodies. Public money can no longer be used to help to provide reproductive health services. The state now says you don't own your bodies and we are going to mandate what you can do with your bodies. But we are not going to help you take care of your bodies. That's your problem, no matter how poor or what unfortunate condition you may find yourselves in. But we still own you.
Back in the 70's, female college students I knew heavily used the services of Planned Parenthood for their reproductive health and contraception services. It was like going to the doctor. No stigma. As students, they didn't have much money and the clinics took care of them. Students that were from out of town were separated from the family doctor and the clinic was down the street.
Something happened between then and now. Every woman's reproductive organs have now become property of the state. Women no longer have rights to privacy concerning what they do with their bodies. Public money can no longer be used to help to provide reproductive health services. The state now says you don't own your bodies and we are going to mandate what you can do with your bodies. But we are not going to help you take care of your bodies. That's your problem, no matter how poor or what unfortunate condition you may find yourselves in. But we still own you.
69
Nothing of the sort is true. Anyone is free to use their money to go get an abortion or go to a local pharmacy and buy condoms. All the Republicans are doing is denying state funds so that everyone else doesn't have to pay for your sex life.
You are right, something happened. The republicans came into power and all they care about is controlling women.
4
my wife and i went to PP together in 1974 (grad students)/ she got her exam, and i was taught about birth control. we are still together. the pregnancy test the revealed our son was also done in PP.
4
The most extreme of religious conservatives risk much by their attempts to end-run Roe v. Wade. It goes beyond de-funding Planned Parenthood and thereby losing valuable and non-controversial healthcare services for low-earning women. It sets up an unchained religious war on our soil that has been effectively contained if not eliminated since the 1973 Roe U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
I’m a little surprised that these state efforts have not only persevered but strengthened, in light of the Supreme Court injunction against end-runs around Roe. And I’m a little disappointed in the tacticians on the left in their unwillingness to fight this danger creatively. A lot of the right’s resistance to PP’s abortion services lies in the public funding of abortion. Somehow, PP needs to fully separate abortion and contraception services from all the other, non-controversial healthcare services it offers, and fund the former completely by donation. That means separate staffs and facilities. Ask me, I’ll contribute.
If it were unambiguously clear that public funds were not being used for abortion or contraception, a huge part of conservative resistance to PP would disappear. PP claims that the funding is separate, but it’s really not. All those valuable services are being held hostage to a desire by some to win a semantics fight. And the loss may be immeasurably high.
I’m a little surprised that these state efforts have not only persevered but strengthened, in light of the Supreme Court injunction against end-runs around Roe. And I’m a little disappointed in the tacticians on the left in their unwillingness to fight this danger creatively. A lot of the right’s resistance to PP’s abortion services lies in the public funding of abortion. Somehow, PP needs to fully separate abortion and contraception services from all the other, non-controversial healthcare services it offers, and fund the former completely by donation. That means separate staffs and facilities. Ask me, I’ll contribute.
If it were unambiguously clear that public funds were not being used for abortion or contraception, a huge part of conservative resistance to PP would disappear. PP claims that the funding is separate, but it’s really not. All those valuable services are being held hostage to a desire by some to win a semantics fight. And the loss may be immeasurably high.
16
Do you seriously believe that separating funds for abortions and for other services would stop these psychotic Republicans from linking them? I don't. These guys are trying to turn me into a Catholic, along with every woman in the U.S.
85
"I’m a little surprised that these state efforts have not only persevered but strengthened, in light of the Supreme Court injunction against end-runs around Roe."
This is what happens when laws that should be passed by a democratically elected legislature are imposed by judges. Many people feel this is unfair, and redouble their efforts to fight back by any means available. If these laws were enacted by Congress, then perhaps the opponents might admit they are outvoted fair and square.
This is what happens when laws that should be passed by a democratically elected legislature are imposed by judges. Many people feel this is unfair, and redouble their efforts to fight back by any means available. If these laws were enacted by Congress, then perhaps the opponents might admit they are outvoted fair and square.
3
It's not just a Catholic. They want to turn you into an extremely conservative religious person. In many of the states that have enacted the most restrictive lows concerning women's reproductive health and attempts to close all Planned Parenthood centers, there are very few Catholics. And they are succeeding in this ith support from conservative Protestants.
10
Register to vote, vote, be supportive of campaigns with your time and money that support the right to choice and single payer.
73
A perfect example would be for Tennessee voters to vote that Marsha Blackburn out of office. She is such a mental log and Tennesseans deserve better.
7
So now you have a law prohibiting abortion in case of a fetal abnormality! I believe abortion needs no other justification than the woman's desire not to be a mother, but if there is a case in which abortion is an act of love, it is when the fetus is abnormal! Don't those lawgivers realize that these children and their families suffer? How cruel must one be, to force a woman into creating a life doomed to perpetual suffering and pain! And what for? What is a justification for such a sadistic law?
211
During their sometimes short and suffering, sometimes long and suffering, but almost always completely dependent lifetimes, most children who survive birth in the cases of many of these abnormalities, each cost the taxpayers millions of dollars over a lifetime. Let's divide the cost and garnish the paychecks and net worth of every politician who has voted for the restrictions. Better yet, each of them should be mandated to adopt two or three of these children, many of who are abandoned, and pay cash from their own earnings for all of their needs, medical and otherwise, as it's not being true to their conservative values to make the taxpayers cover these costs. Those who aren't smart enough and don't work hard enough to earn the needed annual hundreds of thousands of dollars to support their adopted children should be given a job in the oil fields of Libya where the pay I hear is quite good.
6
There is no justification for any of their actions beyond the belief, reinforced by religion, that a woman is a man's property and her reproductive organs are his alone to control. It simply drives some men crazy that women can be self-directed, independent beings. And as long as religion is at the core of daily life for a huge swath of this country, those beliefs will continue to oppress women.
6
Mostly male lawmakers, except for that nitwit from Tennessee in the House of Representatives.
4
When did the party of Lincoln, Teddy, and Ike become so very concerned with hand size, the length of another male body party, and then be utterly convinced that male Republicans should have absolute control over the reproductive rights and health of all females???
What is even less understood to those outside of the cult of Republicanism thinking is why Republican women support the policies and actions of Republican men!!!
When the history, not funded by Republican money, is written of this strange interlude in American history nothing the Republican movement has done to oppressed the women of American with will reflect well upon the Republican movement. Obviously the men of the party feel threatened by the female body and looking down at themselves also feel the shame of being short changed by mother nature--so over compensation of the worst and most harmful sort by these length challenged enemies of women is the order of the day.
What is even less understood to those outside of the cult of Republicanism thinking is why Republican women support the policies and actions of Republican men!!!
When the history, not funded by Republican money, is written of this strange interlude in American history nothing the Republican movement has done to oppressed the women of American with will reflect well upon the Republican movement. Obviously the men of the party feel threatened by the female body and looking down at themselves also feel the shame of being short changed by mother nature--so over compensation of the worst and most harmful sort by these length challenged enemies of women is the order of the day.
45
@John Eudy
"why Republican women support the policies and actions of Republican men!!!"
Terrific comment and terrific question. It's the most insane thing I've ever seen and is entirely consistent with the madness that is the Republican party. I'm convinced that all Republicans are insane people with insane world views who have sadly taken over America. Not for much longer though. We've had enough.
"why Republican women support the policies and actions of Republican men!!!"
Terrific comment and terrific question. It's the most insane thing I've ever seen and is entirely consistent with the madness that is the Republican party. I'm convinced that all Republicans are insane people with insane world views who have sadly taken over America. Not for much longer though. We've had enough.
3
You can pick either 1964 (Goldwater), 1968 (Nixon), 1980 (Reagan), 1984 (Bush), 2000 (different Bush), 2012 (Romney) - heck, go back as far as FDR and a central tenet of Republican policies has been to put other s in their place, and put down people who are "other". A party that welcomes fringe lunatics and excludes people who look different will focus on extreme ideologies - PP is just like all other issues for them.
4
Evidently they need to discriminate against gay people to prove they're straight to themselves.
4
This reads to me, to put it more bluntly, as "Sexual Assault on Women." That we still have in this supposedly highly-civilized, highly-educated society a national, mostly conservative Republican-led religious attempt at patriarchal control of women represents a massive failure of our culture. That the historic "separation of church and state" that we boast about is a hallmark of our rule of law is being violated is both a national disgrace and a human tragedy for women being denied essential health care from organizations like Planned Parenthood. The unwanted pregnancies, the unwanted often unaffordable children, and even the sharply increased risk of maternal death are the result of these Sharia-like laws. And, then to add the final insult, most of the same states are ones that also cut Food Stamps and other social safety net programs like Medicaid (as you note) that would allow these children to thrive. This is just another variant of legalized sex slavery and until women unite and join the fight against it (rather than Carly Fiorina fighting for it) they will remain second-class citizens.
94
Birth control should be "free" and available; in many places it is and it makes no difference. People are lazy do what they want and society pays with crime, ignorance and poverty. We have made no progress with this in the past fifty years so let's pay billions more.
6
"We have made no progress with this in the past fifty years so let's pay billions more."
Increased access to effective birth control and legal abortion has made an enormous difference, even within the iconic American family. Couples are having fewer children, making the family better able to weather economic downturns. If you think the Great Recession was brutal, imagine slogging through it with twice or three times as many kids.
Effective, affordable birth control has made it possible for two generations of women to postpone motherhood or avoid it entirely, so they could get the advanced education and jobs that were considered completely out of the question 50 years ago, when women were at the mercy of their biology.
Safe, legal abortion has saved women's lives; for those living in poverty, it has allowed them to stay in school and/or focus on the children they already have.
There have been studies supporting the notion that Roe v. Wade made a significant contribution toward lowering the crime rate--just as early supporters of legal abortion said it would. This is not surprising: Women who don't want children often make lousy mothers whose kids turn to the streets for the companionship they lack at home.
Compared to the cost of supporting millions of unwanted children from birth to adulthood, it costs taxpayers very little to make family planning services available to the poor. To stop now because some people are too lazy to use birth control is absurd.
Increased access to effective birth control and legal abortion has made an enormous difference, even within the iconic American family. Couples are having fewer children, making the family better able to weather economic downturns. If you think the Great Recession was brutal, imagine slogging through it with twice or three times as many kids.
Effective, affordable birth control has made it possible for two generations of women to postpone motherhood or avoid it entirely, so they could get the advanced education and jobs that were considered completely out of the question 50 years ago, when women were at the mercy of their biology.
Safe, legal abortion has saved women's lives; for those living in poverty, it has allowed them to stay in school and/or focus on the children they already have.
There have been studies supporting the notion that Roe v. Wade made a significant contribution toward lowering the crime rate--just as early supporters of legal abortion said it would. This is not surprising: Women who don't want children often make lousy mothers whose kids turn to the streets for the companionship they lack at home.
Compared to the cost of supporting millions of unwanted children from birth to adulthood, it costs taxpayers very little to make family planning services available to the poor. To stop now because some people are too lazy to use birth control is absurd.
10
In Colo. long term contraception was provided free of charge, birth went down 40%, abortion went down an astounding 42%! Republicans cancelled the program of course. It saved millions of dollars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/science/colorados-push-against-teenage...
18
40% of abortions are procured by those contracepting so I don't think free birth control will solve this problem. As for societal ills, especially in minority communities where many planned parenthoods are located, you should look to the destruction of the natural family caused by progressive liberal policies and yes, contraception.
1
Planned Parenthood performed 327,653 abortions in 2013. 327,653 babies lost their lives to this grisly procedure known as abortion. That is not an insignificant number and PP profits greatly from this. This is outrageous.
There are more than 13,000 community health centers in the US that serve 22 million patients in all 50 states. These are located in both cities and rural areas. They offer the same exact services that PP provides and more -- mammograms, immunizations, cholesterol screenings, diabetes and glaucoma screenings.
Why do we need PP when these community health centers provide the exact same services in addition to those mentioned above. The only difference is that these centers do not provide abortions (thank goodness) and save lives -- the innocent lives of the unborn. PP must go and be put out of the abortion business -- a sham operation if ever there was one.
There are more than 13,000 community health centers in the US that serve 22 million patients in all 50 states. These are located in both cities and rural areas. They offer the same exact services that PP provides and more -- mammograms, immunizations, cholesterol screenings, diabetes and glaucoma screenings.
Why do we need PP when these community health centers provide the exact same services in addition to those mentioned above. The only difference is that these centers do not provide abortions (thank goodness) and save lives -- the innocent lives of the unborn. PP must go and be put out of the abortion business -- a sham operation if ever there was one.
10
Surely you are aware that plenty of abortions go on in doctor's offices every day, right? You know that abortions are not solely provided by Planned Parenthood. What Planned Parenthood does is perform them on women who cannot afford to pay private doctors, or who have no insurance. These are the women who are least able to support children, and who are likely to have no money for other kinds of health care that PP is, by far, the greatest provider of in the US. And to say that the measly couple hundred dollars that PP charges to cover basic costs equals "great profit" is absolutely absurd.
Getting rid of Planned Parenthood simply means that, as usual, the conditions of the rich will remain unchanged, while the rest of the population of women (and men, too) suffers an unfair burden of poor health and greatly reduced choices for how to manage their lives.
And, as the article points out (and can be read in detail in many other publications), many of those "community health centers" are opticians, dental clinics, and other facilities that are not qualified provide even prescriptions for antibiotics for urinary tract infections. Please try to at least assimilate the facts.
Getting rid of Planned Parenthood simply means that, as usual, the conditions of the rich will remain unchanged, while the rest of the population of women (and men, too) suffers an unfair burden of poor health and greatly reduced choices for how to manage their lives.
And, as the article points out (and can be read in detail in many other publications), many of those "community health centers" are opticians, dental clinics, and other facilities that are not qualified provide even prescriptions for antibiotics for urinary tract infections. Please try to at least assimilate the facts.
18
There are certainly a lot of misleading rote talking points here that serve as empty polemics that are frequently regurgitated by the anti-choice crowd and zealots.
Planned Parenthood “greatly profits” from providing abortion services? Nonsense. There is no public money involved; it’s a small portion of all the services they provide; and it jeopardizes the funding for non-abortion services.
What makes this a ‘grisly procedure?” Is it grislier than a miscarriage – of which there are close a million (reported) every year?
Statements about “babies who lost their lives” and “the innocent lives of the unborn” are also misleading in the extreme. It confuses fetal tissue with a human life. If these are “babies” why aren’t there church services and funerals for miscarriages? Why aren’t there sates regulations requiring autopsies? Wouldn’t autopsies proved research that might prevent more “deaths” in the future?
This type of argument isn’t about the services Planned Parenthood provides – it about anti-choice. It’s about ending safe and legal access to abortion.
If Planned Parenthood is closed down - it won’t end abortion. And overturning Roe v Wade won’t end it either. Abortion has been part of the equation for as along as there are women with unwanted pregnancies. The question is whether or not abortion should be criminalized. And forced underground or become dependent upon home remedies- like coat hangers. This is THE women’s health issue in play.
Planned Parenthood “greatly profits” from providing abortion services? Nonsense. There is no public money involved; it’s a small portion of all the services they provide; and it jeopardizes the funding for non-abortion services.
What makes this a ‘grisly procedure?” Is it grislier than a miscarriage – of which there are close a million (reported) every year?
Statements about “babies who lost their lives” and “the innocent lives of the unborn” are also misleading in the extreme. It confuses fetal tissue with a human life. If these are “babies” why aren’t there church services and funerals for miscarriages? Why aren’t there sates regulations requiring autopsies? Wouldn’t autopsies proved research that might prevent more “deaths” in the future?
This type of argument isn’t about the services Planned Parenthood provides – it about anti-choice. It’s about ending safe and legal access to abortion.
If Planned Parenthood is closed down - it won’t end abortion. And overturning Roe v Wade won’t end it either. Abortion has been part of the equation for as along as there are women with unwanted pregnancies. The question is whether or not abortion should be criminalized. And forced underground or become dependent upon home remedies- like coat hangers. This is THE women’s health issue in play.
18
First, a fetus is not a baby. Second, Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization that reinvests any surplus back into the organization.
Third, most community health centers don't have gynecologists on staff and don't have the capacity to absorb the patients Planned Parenthood serves.
Third, most community health centers don't have gynecologists on staff and don't have the capacity to absorb the patients Planned Parenthood serves.
16
Seems simple enough - and I'm pro-choice as hell - rather than restrict abortions thusly "public money cannot be used for abortions in almost all cases anyway" - just get rid of the "almost" from the phrase. Genuinely curious as to the problem here.
The "almost" cases are rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Are you willing to see a woman die to eliminate that "almost?"
48
The reason that the word "most" is used is because the law prohibiting federal funding of abortion makes exceptions for abortions in the cases of rape, incest or endangerment to the life of the mother. While removing those exceptions might placate some anti-choice extremists, it is not going to end the dispute. You also forget that many anti-choice people consider contraception to be the same as abortion. This is a religiously-based movement that demands adherence to its tenets and elimination of legal abortion. Planned Parenthood funding is a small piece of the issue.
5
The "problem" here is that freedom of religion must also include freedom from religion, to make choices about your own body and your own life, and our Constitution applies to women as well as men. The law does not apply and should not apply to the unborn until they are able to live outside of a woman's body.
Society's attempt to prevent abortion has never worked (even in ancient times) and it is deeply unethical since all religions do not agree about the "spiritual" significance of fetuses. Furthermore, these laws never affect the rich so they are classist and elitist, as well as misogynistic. Anti-abortion laws are ipso facto anti-religious freedom. They are Christian Sharia law for all and, as such, deeply offensive to those who aren't Christian and to agnostics and atheists as well. On all levels, personal and cultural, these laws go against what our nation stands for at its deepest level: freedom of the individual to make choices for their own lives without undue and unwarranted government interference. The legislators who pass these laws are hypocrites of the highest order because you can bet your life that their wives and daughters don't spend a moment worrying about not having access to abortion.
Society's attempt to prevent abortion has never worked (even in ancient times) and it is deeply unethical since all religions do not agree about the "spiritual" significance of fetuses. Furthermore, these laws never affect the rich so they are classist and elitist, as well as misogynistic. Anti-abortion laws are ipso facto anti-religious freedom. They are Christian Sharia law for all and, as such, deeply offensive to those who aren't Christian and to agnostics and atheists as well. On all levels, personal and cultural, these laws go against what our nation stands for at its deepest level: freedom of the individual to make choices for their own lives without undue and unwarranted government interference. The legislators who pass these laws are hypocrites of the highest order because you can bet your life that their wives and daughters don't spend a moment worrying about not having access to abortion.
7
We will know the Trump revolution in the Republican Party is complete when the Trumpeters (sorry!) begin showing up in state capitals threatening legislators with the loss of their seat for supporting cuts to Planned Parenthood.
13
If the states provided access to real health care to women as a matter of policy, with expanded medicaid, and actual affordable insurance coverage for contraception, STD testing, basic exams and cancer screenings, pre-natal care, post-partum depression screening and treatment, then the effort to defund Planned Parenthood would be an unfair attack on an abortion provider, which would be forced to seek private funding.
But Planned Parenthood is one of the few low cost, high availability resources for poor women, for young women, for women who do not have the insurance to get them into a doctor's group like the one I can visit. Defunding Planned Parenthood is an attack on women, end of story.
As someone who has a uterus, and has needed care for pregnancy and other women's health issues, who has experienced some difficulties, who has friends who have nearly died from pre-elclampsia and post-partum hemorrhage, and has others fighting breast and ovarian cancer, I have to ask why only those of us with good jobs should have high quality care.
Women need to stand for other women and demand that the state assure that women have affordable access to care, and that one of the few places that does this is not shut down in a ham-handed attempt to eliminate abortions.
Interim elections matter. People die from what those invisible people you didn't go out and vote for do.
But Planned Parenthood is one of the few low cost, high availability resources for poor women, for young women, for women who do not have the insurance to get them into a doctor's group like the one I can visit. Defunding Planned Parenthood is an attack on women, end of story.
As someone who has a uterus, and has needed care for pregnancy and other women's health issues, who has experienced some difficulties, who has friends who have nearly died from pre-elclampsia and post-partum hemorrhage, and has others fighting breast and ovarian cancer, I have to ask why only those of us with good jobs should have high quality care.
Women need to stand for other women and demand that the state assure that women have affordable access to care, and that one of the few places that does this is not shut down in a ham-handed attempt to eliminate abortions.
Interim elections matter. People die from what those invisible people you didn't go out and vote for do.
512
And the men who care about the above mentioned women.
22
Affluent women will always have access to abortion, birth control and good health care. This fact I've never heard mentioned. The GOP wants to deny the less affluent middle class, the working class and the poor the services the affluent will always have access to. Even if every red state could outlaw abortion and birth control, the affluent could go to states still offering these services. The GOP War on Women is really a war on those 'others', blacks, Hispanics, and poor. Abortion is just another dog whistle for racism. Ironically the GOP attack on abortion and Obamacare also hurts all those people now supporting Trump. Less affluent, middle class, working class and poor whites need health care and reproductive care. The GOP continues to hurt its own base, empowering Trump. The obsession with abortion instead of improving health care has contributed to Trump's rise.
10
These services are provided elsewhere and by MD's, who are not found at PP. The issue here is the political power of PP.
1
Hello women of the USA- here is the Republican war on women....yes it's real. Vote intelligently in November and put these dinosaurs out of work.
277
Vote intelligently in November, yes. But please, please vote in every election, not just the presidential one. This is how the State houses get stocked with right wing nut jobs who only care about guns and god, and who are advocating government small enough to fit into a woman's vagina. And that's where they make all their laws.
9
Here are the real victims of the war on women: http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/
1
If we can pass Universal Health Care provision with all the reproductive rights of women protected, none of these discussion will occur. None of religious employer would have any say in an Universal Federal Plan funded by general revenue from all taxes. Just as we cannot object to funding war by withholding our income tax.
Vote for Hillary or Bernie or both!
Vote for Hillary or Bernie or both!
127
You mean we can have the awesome healthcare that those in Canada and the UK have?
Yes, many states are cutting Planned Parenthood.
Those same states have and are still are cutting much else, all aimed at the same people who need Planned Parenthood. It isn't just about Planned Parenthood, it is anything and everything.
To allow the focus to be on abortion, only a small part of Planned Parenthood, is to play to their cover story for what they are doing across the board.
For example, Michigan adopted expanded Medcaid on the last possible day to do so, not issuing any rules or forms to apply until the day of the deadline. Now, they have put on a whole new set of costs, charging co-pays to people who previously did not have them.
Those people previously had cash benefits to go with food stamps. Those were calculated low, and lack of need for money for co-pay was one excuse. Now the benefits are cut, they impose co-pays too, effective Jan 1, 2016.
And they restrict help from Planned Parenthood too, not just abortion help but the other 90% and more of women's health care that provided.
It is all part of a larger pattern, and Planned Parenthood is just one small piece in the pattern.
We mustn't be diverted to arguing their point on their terms, mustn't accept their framing of this. It isn't really about abortion. It is far bigger than that.
Those same states have and are still are cutting much else, all aimed at the same people who need Planned Parenthood. It isn't just about Planned Parenthood, it is anything and everything.
To allow the focus to be on abortion, only a small part of Planned Parenthood, is to play to their cover story for what they are doing across the board.
For example, Michigan adopted expanded Medcaid on the last possible day to do so, not issuing any rules or forms to apply until the day of the deadline. Now, they have put on a whole new set of costs, charging co-pays to people who previously did not have them.
Those people previously had cash benefits to go with food stamps. Those were calculated low, and lack of need for money for co-pay was one excuse. Now the benefits are cut, they impose co-pays too, effective Jan 1, 2016.
And they restrict help from Planned Parenthood too, not just abortion help but the other 90% and more of women's health care that provided.
It is all part of a larger pattern, and Planned Parenthood is just one small piece in the pattern.
We mustn't be diverted to arguing their point on their terms, mustn't accept their framing of this. It isn't really about abortion. It is far bigger than that.
131
True, this is part and parcel of a larger project.
But for a young woman, an unplanned pregnancy is very often the event that triggers a quick downward slide to poverty. Having a baby can shut down her educational opportunities, fast-track her into poorly-paid jobs that don't provide health insurance, reduce her chances of finding a partner to share the child-rearing responsibilities and force her to live in substandard housing. If she cannot gain access to effective birth control, she may have additional children that put her farther behind the eight-ball.
All of that can be prevented if young women receive comprehensive, medically-accurate sex education, access to reliable birth control and early, safe and legal abortion if she becomes pregnant in spite of taking precautions.
"Then she shouldn't have sex," sniff the self-righteous, in effect labeling sex a luxury that the poor cannot afford. We've tried that approach for 6,000 years with absolutely no success. Fifty years ago we decided to try a different strategy involving birth control and sex education, and discovered that wherever it was tried, unwanted births declined. It is shocking that many powerful people don't care that it worked and want to take us back to the failed policies of the past.
So when we push back against the big-picture agenda, let's start by protecting Planned Parenthood and other sources of accurate sex information and effective birth control.
But for a young woman, an unplanned pregnancy is very often the event that triggers a quick downward slide to poverty. Having a baby can shut down her educational opportunities, fast-track her into poorly-paid jobs that don't provide health insurance, reduce her chances of finding a partner to share the child-rearing responsibilities and force her to live in substandard housing. If she cannot gain access to effective birth control, she may have additional children that put her farther behind the eight-ball.
All of that can be prevented if young women receive comprehensive, medically-accurate sex education, access to reliable birth control and early, safe and legal abortion if she becomes pregnant in spite of taking precautions.
"Then she shouldn't have sex," sniff the self-righteous, in effect labeling sex a luxury that the poor cannot afford. We've tried that approach for 6,000 years with absolutely no success. Fifty years ago we decided to try a different strategy involving birth control and sex education, and discovered that wherever it was tried, unwanted births declined. It is shocking that many powerful people don't care that it worked and want to take us back to the failed policies of the past.
So when we push back against the big-picture agenda, let's start by protecting Planned Parenthood and other sources of accurate sex information and effective birth control.
10
The Republicans set up a vicious cycle in which poor women who cannot get access to contraceptives, have more babies, then they are blamed by these Republicans (many of them "Christian") for "having babies they can't afford" or for "having babies to get more welfare money." I'm pretty sure that these same Republicans, who are often well off themselves, also view those who get STDs including HIV as sexually "lose" and therefore care little about whether or not they can get medical care. Others of them may simply not understand living so very precariously that medical care is out of reach without organizations like Planned Parenthood.
Then, too, there are more compassionate Republicans whose main (or only) issue is abortion. To them, "saving" a pregnancy trumps all else in their voting. This group may feel for the poor in other ways, but firmly believe that all pregnancies must be brought to term. They also tend to believe that if they can end legal abortion, they can end all abortion. That is, of course, delusional, but they are certainly willing to risk women's lives and well being in that cause.
Then, too, there are more compassionate Republicans whose main (or only) issue is abortion. To them, "saving" a pregnancy trumps all else in their voting. This group may feel for the poor in other ways, but firmly believe that all pregnancies must be brought to term. They also tend to believe that if they can end legal abortion, they can end all abortion. That is, of course, delusional, but they are certainly willing to risk women's lives and well being in that cause.
222
I am sure you can donate money to Planned Parenthood. Or do you want other's to foot the bill for killing the unborn? Feelin' the Bern!
1
If this isn't an incentive to register and vote Democrat, then I don't know what it. The midterm elections are just as important. Vote, vote, vote.
228
As a public education supporter, this is precisely why I strongly opposed the recently enacted bill that gave States more flexibility. I daresay the 23 states who oppose planned parenthood are likely to oppose curricula that include units on evolution, climate change, and human sexuality... and are also likely to seek ways to increase the privatization of public schools in an effort to reduce their taxes. Narrowing the curriculum to "reading, writing and arithmetic" is a two-fer for politicians: it addresses the concerns of the fundamentalists and the corporate lobbyists. The only losers are the students.
97
" I daresay the 23 states who oppose planned parenthood are likely to oppose curricula that include units on evolution, climate change, and human sexuality.."
Yes, you daresay.
Pure conjecture.
Sources and facts please.
1
Who is behind this assault on female rights as divinely naturally equally created persons with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Misogynist white conservative Republican Tea Confederate Party men and women. The misogynist Roman Catholic Church and evangelical Protestant Christian faiths who love and respect a fetus more than an infant. Catholics and evangelicals who value sperm donors over egg and breast milk donors.
Nearly 2/3rds of black kids are born out of wedlock to poor mothers who receive poor prenatal and postnatal medical health care to the detriment of infant and mother. The portion of whites currently in that category is 20%. Because there are 5x as many whites as blacks a majority of Americans in that category still look like Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston. Indeed, the percentage of whites is identical to that of the black family when Daniel Patrick Moynihan dismissed the black family" as a tangled web of pathology that would benefit from a period of benign neglect" by public and private assistance programs.
Misogynist white conservative Republican Tea Confederate Party men and women. The misogynist Roman Catholic Church and evangelical Protestant Christian faiths who love and respect a fetus more than an infant. Catholics and evangelicals who value sperm donors over egg and breast milk donors.
Nearly 2/3rds of black kids are born out of wedlock to poor mothers who receive poor prenatal and postnatal medical health care to the detriment of infant and mother. The portion of whites currently in that category is 20%. Because there are 5x as many whites as blacks a majority of Americans in that category still look like Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston. Indeed, the percentage of whites is identical to that of the black family when Daniel Patrick Moynihan dismissed the black family" as a tangled web of pathology that would benefit from a period of benign neglect" by public and private assistance programs.
39
You know, it does take two to make a baby. So why are so many black kids born out of wedlock? Just wondering
The unwanted pregnancy rate among the whole cohort(African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians) of poor people is high. If the metric used were the number of children born out of wedlock of the people living in poverty, I believe the numbers would be closer. But still the question remains, why do men and women engage in risky behavior that can produce a new life? This situation hasn't always been so.
The unwanted pregnancy rate among the whole cohort(African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians) of poor people is high. If the metric used were the number of children born out of wedlock of the people living in poverty, I believe the numbers would be closer. But still the question remains, why do men and women engage in risky behavior that can produce a new life? This situation hasn't always been so.
2
"Misogynist white conservative Republican Tea Confederate Party men and women."
Wow. Lost complete credibility with the second sentence.
Wow. Lost complete credibility with the second sentence.
3
@ dw
That excludes those persons who do not fit into that category whose opposition is based purely on policy differences regarding what is best for the United States of America.
Our Founding Fathers intended gridlock in the absence of compromise and negotiation.
See "Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class" Ian Haney Lopez: "Listen Liberal: How the Party of the People Learned to Love Inequality" Thomas Frank
That excludes those persons who do not fit into that category whose opposition is based purely on policy differences regarding what is best for the United States of America.
Our Founding Fathers intended gridlock in the absence of compromise and negotiation.
See "Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class" Ian Haney Lopez: "Listen Liberal: How the Party of the People Learned to Love Inequality" Thomas Frank
3
And to think, all PP has to do to be funded is to stop performing abortions. I guess all those other things PP does are really not all that important to them (or their supporters), or PP would cease abortions, allowing them to be done by organizations that are not funded by the government, and allowing PP to be funded with taxpayer money.
1
"..all PP has to do to be funded is to stop performing abortions."
That worked so well in Louisiana.
That worked so well in Louisiana.
33
A better solution would be for our Christian friends to accept the Biblical definition of when human life begins.
The Bible clearly states that Adam came alive when God breathed the Breath of Life into him, whereupon his Soul entered his Body.
The Biblical answer to the ancient question of when Human Life begins is that it begins when the Soul enters the Body, which occurs with the first Breath.
This is a Christian Principle that will work for Society.
The Bible clearly states that Adam came alive when God breathed the Breath of Life into him, whereupon his Soul entered his Body.
The Biblical answer to the ancient question of when Human Life begins is that it begins when the Soul enters the Body, which occurs with the first Breath.
This is a Christian Principle that will work for Society.
37
Abortion has been practiced for the ages. Making it illegal or closing PP will not make it go away. It will drive desperate women to the back alley or to self induce causing great harm or death to some mothers.
Wealthy women will always have access to safe abortions.
These lawmakers are inhumane.
Wealthy women will always have access to safe abortions.
These lawmakers are inhumane.
46
Why isn't the underlying issue of government funding of this private family planning agency never mentioned or discussed. It seems to me if the state has an interest in providing these services, they should be done at federal, state, county, and/or city hospitals, which are entities responsible and accountable to the public.
2
John, obviously, the state has no interest in providing theses services. Patriarchy strikes again! Women are being made back into lesser beings - we are going backwards in this society to a time when women had no rights. Wake up!
54
Your underlying assumption is that Planned Parenthood is somehow not accountable for any government funding it receives. The federal government isn't sending them envelopes of unmarked cash -- they, like any other health care provider, are reimbursed for services they have already performed, and they are subject to audit just like any other health care provider.
50
You forgot to mention Ohio - Kasich signed a bill defunding Planned Parenthood. So much for a moderate, kinder, gentler GOP candidate.
454
Important to remember about Kasich. Thank you.
2
That it can be conclusively demonstrated by both empirical evidence and through the use of common sense that PP reduces unwanted pregnancies hence abortions is beyond doubt. That the establishment of the Republican Party at both State and Nation levels is committed to destroying PP in the name of a moral crusade against abortion should be all the information you need when entering a polling both come November.
72
The majority of the electorate supports Planned Parenthood, so these mostly male Republican politicians are pandering to a mere handful of fringe-dwellers, but why? Because they hate that women have finally taken a place in the society beyond the kitchen and the nursery, and they really hate that we can have sexual pleasure without paying for it with lifelong parenthood. They despise the poor, most people of color, and hate women, period, and prove it over and over with policies and behavior that demonstrates that they believe our right to exist is almost entirely predicated on them being able to control our lives. Most tragically, some women, who may genuinely believe that abortion is wrong, have bought into the whole package, and collude to bring us all to our knees, even eliminating contraception.
The ability to control our fertility is the ability to be free to chart our own courses, and they know it better than we did. We were caught slumbering, sure that Roe couldn't be touched, that the battle had been won. I don't think any of us realized just how intensely these white males would fight to hang onto their virtually absolute power over the rest of us. But look at the Republican presidential contenders: an openly vitriolic, completely unapologetic racist misogynist, a Dominionist Christian living by 8th C principles, and the man who just all but wiped out abortion rights in Ohio.
They're out in the open now, and have to fight all over again. Disgusting. Exhausting.
The ability to control our fertility is the ability to be free to chart our own courses, and they know it better than we did. We were caught slumbering, sure that Roe couldn't be touched, that the battle had been won. I don't think any of us realized just how intensely these white males would fight to hang onto their virtually absolute power over the rest of us. But look at the Republican presidential contenders: an openly vitriolic, completely unapologetic racist misogynist, a Dominionist Christian living by 8th C principles, and the man who just all but wiped out abortion rights in Ohio.
They're out in the open now, and have to fight all over again. Disgusting. Exhausting.
191
As a bumper sticker said: "Just say NO to sex with anti-choice men"
21
You certainly said a mouthful.
Problem I have is no sources or facts are cited.
That makes these statements pure hyperbole.
1
You are free to "control your fertility", what ever that means. You are not free to kill an innocent human being.
1
Without a political revolution that Sen. Sanders is talking about, where people stand up en masse and tell the politicians to do what is right for them and *not* for the special interests, be it religious or business, this sort of thing will continue.
As for Bobby Jindal, the one who said the GOP "must stop being the stupid party," he, by his words and actions, continues to demonstrate the opposite of what he said.
Not only is the GOP the stupid party, it is also anti-women. One can have philosophical disagreements on abortion, but denying women access to contraception shows that the party only cares about the views of its ultra-religious supporters and not about women's health issues.
Businesses have been protesting GOP's efforts at the state level against LGBT groups, and sometimes successfully, to stave off laws that would allow discrimination against such groups. When are businesses going to start protesting anti-women actions by state legislatures? Do they not care about women as well?
As for Bobby Jindal, the one who said the GOP "must stop being the stupid party," he, by his words and actions, continues to demonstrate the opposite of what he said.
Not only is the GOP the stupid party, it is also anti-women. One can have philosophical disagreements on abortion, but denying women access to contraception shows that the party only cares about the views of its ultra-religious supporters and not about women's health issues.
Businesses have been protesting GOP's efforts at the state level against LGBT groups, and sometimes successfully, to stave off laws that would allow discrimination against such groups. When are businesses going to start protesting anti-women actions by state legislatures? Do they not care about women as well?
68
Women that vote republican are a mystery to me.
I can't understand why any woman would place a misguided vote for lower taxes or whatever issue she thinks she is voting for if it undermines her autonomy.
It is about control and punishment....it was never about the fetus.
I can't understand why any woman would place a misguided vote for lower taxes or whatever issue she thinks she is voting for if it undermines her autonomy.
It is about control and punishment....it was never about the fetus.
153
Sorry it is about money.
The perception of many is that this president is a spendthrift with OPM (Other Peoples Money)—namely ours.
Please note:
6.3 trillion dollars
The debt added by previous presidents combined from George Washington (1789) through George Bush (2008).
6.5 trillion dollars
The debt added by president Obama alone (first term only)
2
@Thom McCann
That is false.
http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2012/may/04/chain-email/...
That is false.
http://www.politifact.com/new-jersey/statements/2012/may/04/chain-email/...
10
The forced birthers and bible thumpers all have one thing in common - they hate women. Nothing shows that more than this visceral hatred of PP. The idea of poor women getting health care, contraception, abortion is so repugnant to them that they will bomb clinics, murder physicians and PP employees - all in the name of "life". Abortion is a legal medical procedure. That is a fact that their tiny minds cannot understand, it is LEGAL. Reading articles like this make me jump over the PP website (www.plannedparenthood.org) and make a nice donation. I encourage everyone who loves and cares about women, to do the same.
122
Moira,
Abortion is the murdering of innocent babies. Do not tell me they are a clump of cells -- they are innocent human beings like you and me. I will be donating to my pro-life organization in Boston which has had much success in reducing abortions. We still have much work to do to end abortion but we will eventually do it.
Abortion is the murdering of innocent babies. Do not tell me they are a clump of cells -- they are innocent human beings like you and me. I will be donating to my pro-life organization in Boston which has had much success in reducing abortions. We still have much work to do to end abortion but we will eventually do it.
1
Prevention is the path to eliminating abortion as well as out of wedlock births. Funding of free contraceptives for all uninsured women and access to reproductive health care will go a long way to eliminating the need for abortion. Funny how many pro-life proponents are also against contraception. Hypocritical?
17
Dear KMW - as a woman old enough to have been around before Roe v. Wade was decided, let me assure you that what you intend to end will not be abortion. That has been around since the dawn of civilization. What you will end, if successful, are legal abortions. And women will go back to the underground ones they had before. Wealthy women will find qualified doctors or travel to countries where the procedure is legal. Not-so-wealthy ones will suffer at the hand of unqualified back alley abortionists as they used to. The coat hangers will once again be used for purposes other than hanging coats. Enjoy your 'victory'.
19
Thank you, NYT. It's important that you have lined up the evidence from Louisiana, Texas, and Indiana regarding the consequences that follow when a governor, and his supporters, gut Planned Parenthood.
One broad question still has not been answered.
Why do so many voting women in these states favor the destruction of Planned Parenthood and support the (strategically macho, merciless) Republican candidates, national and local, who win votes by denigrating sexually active women and denying them--especially the poor--good healthcare and effective, affordable contraception? Don't these anti-PP women have cousins, sisters, friends who have, in fact, had sex and sought reliable birth control? Don't they grasp that available contraception reduces the abortion rate?
Sorry. That's more than one question.
Let's remember that Ted Cruz (quote: "last time I checked, we don't have a rubber shortage in America") declared he ain't much worried about contraception because a guy can always buy plenty of cheap condoms in a gas-station restroom. As an American woman, I haven't purchased condoms from a gas-station men's restroom in a long time. Should I try it?
Failure rate for condoms, according to the Internet: 12 percent.
Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry. I almost understand why these guys would behave badly. But why do women follow them?
One broad question still has not been answered.
Why do so many voting women in these states favor the destruction of Planned Parenthood and support the (strategically macho, merciless) Republican candidates, national and local, who win votes by denigrating sexually active women and denying them--especially the poor--good healthcare and effective, affordable contraception? Don't these anti-PP women have cousins, sisters, friends who have, in fact, had sex and sought reliable birth control? Don't they grasp that available contraception reduces the abortion rate?
Sorry. That's more than one question.
Let's remember that Ted Cruz (quote: "last time I checked, we don't have a rubber shortage in America") declared he ain't much worried about contraception because a guy can always buy plenty of cheap condoms in a gas-station restroom. As an American woman, I haven't purchased condoms from a gas-station men's restroom in a long time. Should I try it?
Failure rate for condoms, according to the Internet: 12 percent.
Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry. I almost understand why these guys would behave badly. But why do women follow them?
273
"I almost understand why these guys would behave badly. But why do women follow them?"
So the guys will like them.
There are still plenty of women out there who want to marry successful men so they can have the nice house and children and cars in a nice neighborhood with plenty of buffer zone between them and the rabble.
They repay their husbands by adopting their political views.
They believe their lives are comfortable and easy because they are virtuous.
They have no idea what it's like to be a woman with four children and no health insurance who finds a lump in her breast.
As a result, they find it very easy to vote for politicians who will defund PPhood because it provides abortions.
So the guys will like them.
There are still plenty of women out there who want to marry successful men so they can have the nice house and children and cars in a nice neighborhood with plenty of buffer zone between them and the rabble.
They repay their husbands by adopting their political views.
They believe their lives are comfortable and easy because they are virtuous.
They have no idea what it's like to be a woman with four children and no health insurance who finds a lump in her breast.
As a result, they find it very easy to vote for politicians who will defund PPhood because it provides abortions.
23
"Why do so many voting women in these states favor the destruction of Planned Parenthood and support the (strategically macho, merciless) Republican candidates"
The media (especially Faux news) bears a lot of responsibility for misleading these women.
The media (especially Faux news) bears a lot of responsibility for misleading these women.
26
"Deborah" asks facetiously, in response to Cruz's idiotic suggestion, "As an American woman, I haven't purchased condoms from a gas-station men's restroom in a long time. Should I try it?"
Better not. Republicans are also planning to require everyone to present a birth certificate at the restroom door as proof of what type of genitals we possessed at birth. Sneak into a Men's Room to buy condoms and you'd be arrested. Got to protect the sanctity of the place...
Better not. Republicans are also planning to require everyone to present a birth certificate at the restroom door as proof of what type of genitals we possessed at birth. Sneak into a Men's Room to buy condoms and you'd be arrested. Got to protect the sanctity of the place...
17
Abortion is not a “tiny fraction” of the services provided by Planned Parenthood. Abortion is its core business. Non-abortion services are there to provide a veneer of legitimacy for its core mission, which is to make abortion-on-demand freely available to anyone at any time for any reason at any stage of pregnancy. The non-abortion services are provided by thousands of alternative providers which do not perform abortions.
The common-sense solution would be for Planned Parenthood to spin off its abortion business into a separate corporate entity which does not touch public money. That way the PP that provides preventive healthcare could continue to receive public support while the abortion business would have to be funded by insurance, patient fees, and private donations. If public funds truly were not being diverted to subsidize abortions within Planned Parenthood, then this change should not affect the finances of the organization at all.
It is unlikely that Planned Parenthood would take such a step precisely because abortion is not a “tiny fraction” of its service line. Abortion is its reason for existence. Its goal is to convince the public that abortion is a health care service like any other, which it is not, never has been, and never will be.
The common-sense solution would be for Planned Parenthood to spin off its abortion business into a separate corporate entity which does not touch public money. That way the PP that provides preventive healthcare could continue to receive public support while the abortion business would have to be funded by insurance, patient fees, and private donations. If public funds truly were not being diverted to subsidize abortions within Planned Parenthood, then this change should not affect the finances of the organization at all.
It is unlikely that Planned Parenthood would take such a step precisely because abortion is not a “tiny fraction” of its service line. Abortion is its reason for existence. Its goal is to convince the public that abortion is a health care service like any other, which it is not, never has been, and never will be.
6
JM Baltimore, thanks for your comments. Would you mind providing a link or links to the thousands of alternative providers of family services to families at or below the established poverty guidelines? After that, what are the prices of alternative providers for each of the specific family services that Planned Parenthood provides to men, women, and children? Pregnancy termination amounts to less than 3% of all Planned Parenthood services. Thanks for reading my comments.
120
All evidence is to the contrary of what you say, JMBaltimore. You may think about abortion all the time, but the rest of us do not.
108
You do realize abortion is legal? If you don't like it, don't have one, but don't deny a legal service to someone who needs it. You are not in charge of women or the medical profession.
76
Any woman who finds herself having to give birth to a baby that she does not want should: 1. walk out of the hospital without it, or 2. immediately leave it on the steps of a state house, or 3. leave it on the step of some ultra conservative church. No identifying labels should be left with the baby. Once the state or church find themselves picking up the tab for caring for a large number of abandoned babies, their attitudes might change, just a little. Meanwhile, you cannot compel a woman to be a mother!!!
44
But of course a woman CAN compel a man to be a father. For the Left, everyone is equal, but some people (women, in this case) are more equal than others.
1
Amen!
1
A woman can compel a man to be a father ???? That's a new one, James. I think you and other men as well have forgotten when and where the moment of choice lies for you. It's the moment when you decide to have unprotected sex. If you choose not to, you cannot be compelled to be a father.
35
In NJ, consequences of the defunding of PP are shown in my own Morris County. While we are a "rich" county, the Planned Parenthood office in Dover closed completely. The office in Morristown reduced hours. The result is an increase in STDs in our county. There are NO benefits to the taxpayers.
The closings don't impact folks like myself, late middle age, fully insured, have cash to spend on what we need; it impacts our young adults who - like young adults everywhere, are still settling into adult life.
The closings don't impact folks like myself, late middle age, fully insured, have cash to spend on what we need; it impacts our young adults who - like young adults everywhere, are still settling into adult life.
247
They also shut down the only PP in neighboring Somerset County, population 335,000, which was located in Manville, the perennially distressed town with per capita income under $30,000. Blue State, wealthy NJ, my eye.
54
What a great bunch of people the GOP are!!!
Let's see....cut abortion rights, cut access to contraction, cut social safety nets.
Then, over the next 20 years, watch crime, taxes, and poverty skyrocket.
All the work trying to slow poverty and crime, which has born some positive results over the last 40 years, will be undone by a bunch of uneducated criminals in a few short years....and those criminals are the GOP.
Let's see....cut abortion rights, cut access to contraction, cut social safety nets.
Then, over the next 20 years, watch crime, taxes, and poverty skyrocket.
All the work trying to slow poverty and crime, which has born some positive results over the last 40 years, will be undone by a bunch of uneducated criminals in a few short years....and those criminals are the GOP.
162
It had to have taken all the republican geniuses, combined, to arrive at the conclusion that what America really, really needed was more poor children, from single parent households, with birth defects, to Make America Great Again.
434
The outrage of this seditious plot to subvert 43 years of constitutional right to abortion and family planing services must be brought to an end. The hate groups that support violence and murder against providers must be prosecuted and jailed. The politicians that pander to the hateful anti-abortionists must be tossed out of office. All of us must be vigilant and involved in preventing a small group of people from the fringe of society from preventing us from exercising out right to choose.
While reporting on this is frequent it must be covered even more and real stores of American women who are being harmed told. This issue has been with us a long time now. Forty three years since Roe. My sense is that we all tend to yawn when we see or hear about it. We need to turn that complacency around. If we all don't pay attention and advocate the righties will take this away from us while we are asleep. Let's not let that happen!
While reporting on this is frequent it must be covered even more and real stores of American women who are being harmed told. This issue has been with us a long time now. Forty three years since Roe. My sense is that we all tend to yawn when we see or hear about it. We need to turn that complacency around. If we all don't pay attention and advocate the righties will take this away from us while we are asleep. Let's not let that happen!
302
How about an in-depth investigative story (protecting sources of course) revealing how many of these anti-abortionists and holy rollers have had or have assisted family members in getting rid of their very own unwanted pregnancies? (i personally know a few, but not high enough profile to have an impact. Go for the Big Guns, the worst hypocrites.)
21
The hostility to PP provides a perfect example of a situation in which ideology trumps common sense. The organization has played a major role in improving the health of low-income women, an achievement both liberals and conservatives can applaud. But opponents of abortion have placed abolition of that procedure so high on their list of priorities that many of them will sacrifice any other objective in an effort to reach that goal.
Adherence to an ideology destroys flexibility of thinking and encourages the faithful to view the messy complexity of life in simplistic terms. In this case, many of the opponents of abortion focus so obsessively on that issue that they blind themselves to the contribution made to that objective by PP's contraceptive services. Their narrow focus enables them to see only that PP also performs abortions.
Other abortion opponents, who also reject the use of artificial contraceptives, fail to grasp the practical incompatibility of those two goals. In their narrow outlook, only sexual abstinence can legitimately prevent a pregnancy.
For both groups, a narrow conception of right and wrong rules out any compromise or concern for the needs and desires of the women involved. If the achievement of this one objective, moreover, damages other priorities, such as improved health or individual freedom, those consequences will not deter them.
Adherence to narrow ideologies almost always defeats the compromises vital to the health of a free society.
Adherence to an ideology destroys flexibility of thinking and encourages the faithful to view the messy complexity of life in simplistic terms. In this case, many of the opponents of abortion focus so obsessively on that issue that they blind themselves to the contribution made to that objective by PP's contraceptive services. Their narrow focus enables them to see only that PP also performs abortions.
Other abortion opponents, who also reject the use of artificial contraceptives, fail to grasp the practical incompatibility of those two goals. In their narrow outlook, only sexual abstinence can legitimately prevent a pregnancy.
For both groups, a narrow conception of right and wrong rules out any compromise or concern for the needs and desires of the women involved. If the achievement of this one objective, moreover, damages other priorities, such as improved health or individual freedom, those consequences will not deter them.
Adherence to narrow ideologies almost always defeats the compromises vital to the health of a free society.
133
LifeNews Writer Katie Yoder wrote an article in which she examined the amount of time CBS, NBC, and ABC spent covering the Planned Parenthood scandal with how much time they spent covering the killing of Cecil, the African lion involved in a research project who was killed by a trophy hunter.
The public reacted with outrage to the unjustified shooting of a beautiful wild animal.
According to Yoder, ABC, CBS, and NBC spent a total of one hour, 32 minutes and 56 seconds of airtime covering Cecil’s story.
In contrast, these networks gave the Planned Parenthood fetal body parts scandal 20 minutes and 21 seconds of coverage:
“From the beginning, the liberal media raced to defend Planned Parenthood. In the first 9 hours and 30 minutes of news shows broadcast after the story broke, ABC, NBC and CBS, spent only 39 seconds on the first video. It took more than 24 hours before all three covered the story. In the week after the first video, the networks gave a mere 9 minutes and 11 seconds to the story.
Planned Parenthood is not being treated the way any other organization would be. Abortion is considered sacred to many liberals today; they do not question the pro-choice position, no matter how much evidence pro-lifers give against it.
Protecting American women means getting Republicans out of office, particularly at the state level.
Christians are not under attack. Christians are attacking, establishing Christian Sharia law, a Christian Caliphate.
Christians are not under attack. Christians are attacking, establishing Christian Sharia law, a Christian Caliphate.
573
If only those Christians would stop lopping off heads and sexually enslaving non-Christian women, the world would be a safe place for the Left.
1
James, no we are civilized. Instead we just shoot innocent civilians near women's health centers.
22
With the complete complicity of the U.S. Sharia Court and it's Suprese R.A.T.S. (Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia, it's late Ayatollah).
In all truth, they should be wearing white turbans over those black robes (with black burquas being require on the "gals").
In all truth, they should be wearing white turbans over those black robes (with black burquas being require on the "gals").
12
This needs to be said:
Did you know the ostensible reason the Right wants to entirely defund planned parenthood is because they believe that it's planned parenthood's choice to make to stop abortion services if PP wants to continue to provide the remainder of all the health services PP provides to women-- and children and men? They're saying unless and until PP stops the one one thing the Right doesn't like, they're going to try and stop PP completely. Of course, were they to win capitulation in that battle, still they would press on, however ...
That slash and burn thinking is what I see in the idea of voting for trump as well. ..
Did you know the ostensible reason the Right wants to entirely defund planned parenthood is because they believe that it's planned parenthood's choice to make to stop abortion services if PP wants to continue to provide the remainder of all the health services PP provides to women-- and children and men? They're saying unless and until PP stops the one one thing the Right doesn't like, they're going to try and stop PP completely. Of course, were they to win capitulation in that battle, still they would press on, however ...
That slash and burn thinking is what I see in the idea of voting for trump as well. ..
32
Oops, Trump has spoken out in favor of PP. But don't let facts get in the way of indignation!
After he spoke in favor of PP he said he would defund it. One more Nonsensical Donaldism.
16
James, but then, typically, he (Trump) said he was in favor of defunding it.
7
Given the choice, why would any reasonable or sane individual want to live in a culture so backward that it consistently bullies the most vulnerable members of society, poor women?
432
Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to emigrate
4
Ah, there's the rub -- you give most Amwricans too much credit. There are very few smart ones left.
4
Stop the abortionsPeriod Abortions are the destruction of human lives. Who will say otherwise! The formula is Planned Parenthood minus abortions. How does one Plan to be a Parent if the child is destroyed in the womb!
2
Well, for one, PP helps people prevent the need for abortions.
How about you, do yo do that? Of course you don't.
How about you, do yo do that? Of course you don't.
75
I defy you to be able to tell the difference between a fertilised human egg and that of any other mammal.
Neither has a brain, a heart, a nervous system, consciousness, etc.
Further, until you, personally, can carry to term every single unwanted pregnancy, then, not your uterus, not your business.
Neither has a brain, a heart, a nervous system, consciousness, etc.
Further, until you, personally, can carry to term every single unwanted pregnancy, then, not your uterus, not your business.
117
So are you against war and executions and guns? All these things destroy human lives, but Americans love them!
84
Well plotted and planned by the Right
Their conspiracy is a true blight,
Assaults on poor Women
Life quality's trimmin'
It calls for a United Fight!
Their conspiracy is a true blight,
Assaults on poor Women
Life quality's trimmin'
It calls for a United Fight!
58
Some moderate . . .