On Thursday, Vice President and homophobic cotton swab, Mike Pence, broke a tie in Congress to pass a bill that would allow state governments to block Title X funding for organizations that provide abortion services, including Planned Parenthood. And good thing too, right? Because as we all know, the government shouldn’t be providing nearly $200 million to such a “corrupt and evil” practice in the first place.
Except that it wasn’t.
Title X, first established in the 1970 Public Health Service Act, is a federal family planning program that had covered things like contraception, STD screenings and treatments, but not abortion as the Hyde Amendment barred federal funding of abortion all the way back in 1976. What Title X could do, was fund various other family planning services that could then separately offer abortions. Before former President Obama left office, he looked to protect this relationship by signing a rule that prohibited states from distributing any Title X funding based on whether an organization provided abortion services. This new bill, however, overturns that rule, allowing states to decide whether such organizations can access funding at all.
The GOP and the far right insist that they are not preventing organizations like Planned Parenthood from receiving Title X funding, but are only returning the responsibility to the states to make that decision. In doing so, our nation’s ruling legislators end up using the same logic as a Disney villain who’s forcibly imprisoned the protagonist and claimed that it was for his/her own good.
Claiming that this was a matter of state’s rights and not an attack on Planned Parenthood is not only erroneous, but also dangerous. The GOP has long been after a way to take down what some call “America’s abortion giant” through a variety of means all parading under some guise that didn’t fully conceal their active disregard for women’s reproductive rights. This war against Planned Parenthood is quite ridiculous when you factor in that a) abortion makes up only 3% of the services offered b) MEN, yes men, need it just as much for things like testicular cancer screening and c) approximately 75% of their patients possess incomes below the federal poverty line and depend on this funding because they would otherwise not be able to afford it.
Democratic Senator Patty Murray commented that this vote was "cruel, and it would have [the] greatest impact on women and families who need it the most.”
The GOP is seemingly always trying to one up itself in regard to its own wickedness. Look at the failed (emphasis on failed) health care act that would not only leave approximately 24 million Americans uninsured, but would also protect young, healthy patients who are the least likely to need the coverage in the first place. Look at this, the vote to strip much needed health care services from women and other patient demographics who will most likely not be able to find alternate solutions. Look at the man they put in the White House for god’s sake.
Nevertheless, you can still hep by donating to Planned Parenthood and organizations similar or calling your representatives and voicing your opposition.
As the old proverb says, if you want to get something done and your legislature is made up of indecisive, amoral white men who can’t even get a health care act voted on after hyping it for seven years and essentially put a sociopathic, expired loaf of bread as commander in chief, then you gotta go do it yourself.
