Its very possible that the Federal Government will shut down tonight at midnight. There are a lot of reasons why the Congress and the President can't agree on a budget. John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, believes that there is “only one reason we do not have an agreement yet, and that is spending,” and asked, “When will the White House and when will Senate Democrats get serious about cutting spending?” Then, Senator Harry Reid, Democrat from Nevada, as well as other Democrats, respond by proposing that they believe that the reason we don't have a budget is because of the cuts proposed by Republicans to women's heath services, most notably, Planned Parenthood.
A lot has been said about Planned Parenthood in the run up to this budget crisis. Some true and some flat out false. Just this morning, AZ Senator Jon Kyl, proclaimed on the floor of the Senate:
"Everybody goes to clinics, to hospitals, to doctors, and so on. Some people go to Planned Parenthood. But you don't have to go Planned Parenthood to get your cholesterol or your blood pressure checked. If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood. And that's well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does." WHAT? We seem to be forgetting that most of what Planned Parenthood does is provide medical services (cancer screenings, STD testing, birth control, prenatal care) to low income people. In fact, according to the Hyde Amendment, Federal funds CAN NOT be used for abortion, except in cases of rape or incest.
From Planned Parenthood's annual report, we learn that only 3% of the services they perform are abortions:
In fact, the majority of the services are contraception services - giving people birth control so they don't have an unintended pregnancy. It seems that if the real issue is to cut spending, ADDITIONAL funding to Planned Parenthood would help. If birth control was more readily accessible, it would stand to reason that there would be less abortion. Which is why the rhetoric about abortion (see this, this, this) makes no sense nor do the laws that are being passed to restrict this LEGAL procedure (see this, this, or this).
It would seem to me that we would want to help men and women figure out how to PREVENT pregnancy not demonize them for being poor, or female. Mr. Boehner, wouldn't we save more tax dollars in the long run if people did not have children they could not afford or were not ready to have or did not want? We would also have fewer mothers on welfare, more people getting preventative care so conditions would not become chronic, and more women receiving prenatal care so they deliver healthy babies. Which is why I can't help but think that this "defund Planned Parenthood" has a deeper meaning - as well as significant implications for society. As Ghandi said "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."
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