The House Republicans seem to be saying yes. Apparently, they think that taking away women's access to reproductive health services is an important way to create jobs and get the economy moving again.
That may explain the urgency of Rep. Mike Pence's disgraceful legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and other providers by stripping them of Title X family-planning funding, since creating jobs is the stated priority of the Republicans in Congress. The Republicans also want to take away the cost-savings and consumer protections in the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act, because this too will apparently create jobs. This is the same GOP that wants to undermine the new law, including re-opening the abortion compromise that maintained the prohibition against federal funds paying for abortions. This is so important to the Republicans that they made one of the bills relating to this issue H.R. 3, among the very first taken up by the House in the 112th Congress. No wonder people are asking Speaker John Boehner, "When are the jobs?"
The GOP is gripped by two obsessions -- rolling back the clock on women's health services and giving control of our health care back to the insurance companies. They want to take us back to the days when insurance companies could deny your care because you have a "pre-existing condition," drop you for getting sick and jack up your rates whenever they feel like it. They want to return to the time when being a woman was a pre-existing condition. They want to entirely eliminate family planning funds. When it comes to health care in general and women's health in particular, the Republicans don't have a legislative agenda to move forward - just a fixation on tearing things down and moving backwards.
Meanwhile, the Republicans aren't doing a single thing to create jobs. They're too busy trying to put the insurance companies back in charge of our health care. They're too busy going after vital health care institutions like Planned Parenthood. They're too busy trying to get between a woman and her doctor. That is especially galling because the insurance companies have made decisions about our health care for decades. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, those days are over. Now the House Republicans want to be the ones making those decisions for women. This is nothing short of a war on women and their health care. And it's happening in state capitals as well as Washington, D.C.
This hypocrisy is extreme, even by the standards the Republicans have set since taking control of the House. Take Speaker Boehner's less-than-authentic comments on the matter of the President's religion and birthplace. He has said again and again that he doesn't want to tell the American people "what to think" -- or tell members of his own caucus to stop lying about these basic matters of fact. The Speaker's line is offensive -- a transparent wink and a nod to those who continue spreading lies about President Obama to intentionally stoke the flames of the far right.
One question comes to mind: If Boehner is not willing to "tell people what to think" about something so important and basic as the legitimacy of the president of the United States, why is it okay to tell women and their doctors what to do?
Seriously, enough already.
Cross posted on the NOW! Blog
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Donna Schaper: Apoplectic about Abortion: One Clergy Woman's Emotional Roller Coaster
We are missing 50,000,000 citizens since about 1975.
If they were here, they'd probably buy something, which of course has to be manufactured. They might want or need a house or a car, and so on.
If they were here, you're probably right that some of them would buy something. Some others would be unemployed. Some others would be selling crack. Some others would be soldiers, policemen/women, doctors, lawyers. Some others would be pimps, porn stars, etc. Some would be born to loving families, who were ready and able to care for and raise a child, while others would be born to parents unprepared for parenthood.
I can guarantee you this, however. Whatever good may or may not have come from ending abortion in this country, I can assure you that it would also bring more than its fair share of ill. You should Google "Ceaușescu".
They reported the encounter at each and every site that Live Action visited, in accordance with the law.
and no...'numerous PP offices in 3 states were not cool with it'. one employee acted in bad judgement and she was immediately terminated. all other employees gave the proper information and then contacted authorities, including the FBI to notify them.
and please educate yourself before you comment. no taxpayer dollars go to fund abortions, at PP or anywhere else. all this ridiculous bill does is cut off funding for services that prevent unintended pregnancies (i.e. birth control and sex education for women who can't otherwise afford it), hence, preventing the need for abortion.
There are dirty cops in the world; does this mean we should disband our police forces? I thought not.
Not a single economist from either party believes these trends are sustainable or that taxes can be successfully raised to cover our existing expenditures.
Government funding simply HAS to be cut. We have no other options.
Option One.
The average has been about 18%.
I suspect you are simply reinforcing your own family planning prejudices.
Women should be informed and have access to all options
Not just the ones bible thumpers approve of.
Negligible? No.
Enough (even if you took it all?) No.
We have a $1.65 Trillion deficit. Even if we ELIMINATED the military, it's less than a Trillion.
"I suspect you are simply reinforcing your own family planning prejudices."
Well I think you are ignorant. In fact I've DONE abortions (granted, only in the first trimester). All you have to do is grasp the cervix in the 12 o'clock position with a toothed tenaculum, dilate progressively with Hegar dilators and when the cervix is sufficiently dilated insert a curette and curette carefully in a 360 degree circle. Once you've heard the sort of scratchy, sandpaper-like noise the myometrium makes when you've scraped off the endometrium, you can scarcely forget it.
"Women should be informed and have access to all options"
Hey, that's like motherhood and apple pie. Who could disagree. The thing is, we don't have enough money to run the government. Some things people have to pay for on their own.
I heart male feminists. My fondest hope is that the GOP is showing its true colors, and its constituency will slowly start to defect, the more moderate among them anyway. I hope this is just a show of their defiance in the face of progress that they know they cannot stop.
I picture some culture in the future being told that "in the American culture it was quite common, and acceptable for mother's to kill their unborn babies. It wasn't out of necessity due to poor living conditions, warfare, or lack of food. Babies were considered an inconvenience."
With the current proposals from the Republications - defunding Head Start, eliminating Planned Parenthood, reducing student lunch programs, denying child health care - they want to direct everything a woman can or can't do once pregnant, but their caring ends at birth.
Hey Repubs: Get out of the examination room! Get out of the doctor's office! Get out of the private lives of women! Get out of women's wombs!
I see bot sides of the argument. In my opinion PP offers valuable services to women, but taxpayer funds should never be used for abortion.