Are you a total, no-exceptions, anti-abortion wacko? If so, you're not only horribly wrong-headed, you're almost certainly not reading this to begin with. So we leave you behind.
Even if you are among the vast majority of more reasonable people, you may still be a bit confused by all the fuss over abortions via Planned Parenthood facilities. I'm here to help.
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Planned Parenthood has been around since 1916. For most of that time, it's had the bipartisan support of most Americans. Despite the GOP's 30-year suck-up to religious/social conservatives, that majority support holds true today.
Fun fact: My mother-in-law (a Republican if ever there was one), the mother of the lovely Mrs. Gammons, once worked for Planned Parenthood.
We are not shutting down the federal government over Planned Parenthood funding, no matter what the foamy-mouth brigade wants.
The sting videos are copy-and-paste bullshit fakery. Carly Fiorina's claim of seeing a kicking-fetus video is double bullshit, and the release of her own dishonest response video is triple bullshit. Planned Parenthood does not "butcher babies" for fun and profit. Doesn't happen. Stop it!
They do most definitely provide a variety of health services, including breast exams, HIV tests, children's health care, contraceptive services, and, yes, abortions.
Planned Parenthood's most frequently delivered service is contraception, at 35% of their total volume. The least frequent is abortion, at just 3%. How about that? Contraception high, abortion low. Duh! (And if you're opposed to both birth control and abortion, you're a special kind of stupid!)
The U.S. has 3144 counties. As the chart illustrates, Planned Parenthood has a presence in just 16% of those counties, but it plays a most necessary role, especially for those at or near the poverty level, who often have few options and no place else to go.
My very own pig-faced U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi wants to defund Planned Parenthood and has said that he believes the 1200 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC's) for underserved areas and populations ought to be sufficient, since FQHC's outnumber Planned Parenthood affiliates 20 to 1, according to Pat. Therefore, says Pat, we can live without Planned Parenthood. FQHC's do not provide abortion services.
Pat is a big fat liar. There are 59 Planned Parenthood affiliates in the U.S. operating 700 facilities. The ratio is 1.7 to 1, not 20 to 1. The 700 Planned Parenthood facilities are essential to women's health and society as a whole. We can't get by without them. If anything, we need more!
Since 1976, federal law, in the form of the Hyde Amendment, has prohibited federal funds from being spent on Medicaid abortions.
Planned Parenthood receives $450-$460 million in total federal funding per year. With 243 million adult taxpayers, that costs each of us a whopping $1.89 per year. Furthermore, $400 million of that is mandatory spending on Medicaid/Medicare reimbursements, which cannot be changed, and of course cannot include abortions. Only $50-$60 million per year is so-called "discretionary" funding of Planned Parenthood. That works out to a puny 25 cents per year per taxpayer, and only a small portion of that goes toward abortion services. That's the "defunding" certain congressional assholes are screaming about.
FQHC's receive $5.1 billion per year in federal discretionary spending.
So, my fine-feathered conservative friends, what exactly is the big problem here? If you're so morally opposed to abortion, don't have an abortion!
Beyond that, for less than 25 cents a year and for the good of society, you can afford to shut the fuck up!
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PINK-OUT tomorrow, Sept. 29th, to show your support for Planned Parenthood!
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