Defunding Planned Parenthood: Now the real fight begins
Earlier this afternoon the Pence Amendment defunding Planned Parenthood passed in the House by a vote of 240-185-1. (The link to the roll call is not working yet.)
Here is a summary of the vote:
240 Voting YES: 230 Republicans and 10 Democrats (Boren of OK, Costello of IL, Donnelly of IN, Lipinski of IL, McIntyre of NC, Peterson of MN, Rahall of WV, Reyes of TX, Ross of AR, and Shuler of NC)
185 Voting NO: 178 Democrats and 7 Republicans (Bass of NH, Biggert of IL, Bono Mack of CA, Dent of PA, Dold of IL, Frelinghuysen of NJ and Hanna of NY)
1 Voting PRESENT: 1 Republican (Amash of MI)
That said, now the real fight begins.
Unlike the House, the Senate is light on pro-lifers and still controlled by Democrats. Nancy Pelosi said the other day she knew the fight would be there. And here will be their talking point… that defunding PP will be “declar[ing] war on birth control.” They will also try to mix the amendment defunding PP with the amendment defunding Title X. Read on (click to enlarge)…
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Jill,
More than the sex-trafficking scandal in the Lila Rose videos is the blatant admission by the Planned Parenthood staffers that they are not using the federal money for its intended purpose.
1. The nurses in Virginia (esp. Roanoke) told the pimp that if he lacked insurance or cash he could go to the county health department for free services.
2. As the federal money is not supposed to subsidize abortions, but health care, and since STD testing and treatment is about the only health care PP performs (Contraception and abortion are not health care, but recreation insurance), and they admitted in NY that they don’t do prenatal care, then sending away people lacking money and/or insurance violates the very purpose for $3.5 Billion per decade.
That’s a good, business-sense argument for financial malfeasance, which is all the reason we need to defund these murderous thieves.
I see that “pro-life” Democrat Jason Altmire from PA who keeps getting re-elected by claiming to be “pro-life” voted to keep on funding Planned Parenthood. Great.
Yea you are right… There is no way that treating STI’s of sex workers is going to slow down the spread of disease… and it would be much better to have a ton of children being raised by mothers who are in the sex worker world… I mean it’s only the oldest profession in all of recorded history but I am sure we can make them stop prostituting themselves if we just show them the error of their ways. Yes all Americans should live by your code of ethics no matter what they think or believe… You guys are of course morally superior to all the rest of us because you have a mandate from a higher power that’s says you are right… How could you possibly be wrong if you are fighting baby murderers… You guys are right and the majority of Americans are just floating in a sea of wrong… Please tell me again how right you are and how no one else’s opinion matters because you are so right? Why listen to anyone else’s morals when you already know yours are superior… You never hear a debate in here about abortion, just strategies on how you can force your beliefs into everyone else’s lives.
Biggz, you are defending using children as sex workers? Go figure. What a “man” you are. you are a predator apparently. you prey on women and children. Your posts prove it.
Biggz, according to science, abortion ends a human life. If you want our laws to be based on something other than science, then maybe you should join the Taliban. How’s that for turning the tables?
Exactly Sydney! Adult women have free will, if they want to sell themselves, then they have the power to do it. Minors should not be in such a business, at all, ever, and when rescued by police or social workers, they can be cared for and don’t need to kill their pre-born children to be treated for an STD.
However, adult women who sell themselves have no right to kill their pre-born children. Humans have the right to exercise their own will. Your rights end where my body begins. My mother did not have the right to kill me when I was too small to defend myself. That applies to humans of all ages and all stages of development.
Since Planned Fraudhood admits that they turn people away from STD treatment, then they should not get one penny from the taxpayers. In fact, I would go one further: after de-funding, we should then go after them for restitution. Cece Richards should pay the government BACK. If Biggz wants to fund the sex industry, then let Biggz pull out his own checkbook. As an American taxpayer, I do not have to pay for your happy ending massage.
Biggz,
Let me answer you from a legal/medical perspective.
1. Prostitution is illegal. Do people still break the law & buy/sell sex–yes. Does that mean we should ignore the law? (And it is a law, not some right wing extremist “code of ethics” as you refer to it) Well, let’s look at another illegal behavior choice–What about drug use? Drugs are illegal, yet people still do drugs. Now, medically speaking, should I as a health care provider not follow what the law is regarding people who engage in illegal drug use? Should I ignore the medical/scientific facts regarding the harm drugs do to a person’s body? So, if a drug addict walks into the ER, should I give them free syringes if they are going to do drugs anyway?? Or am I obligated legally & medically/ethically to do what I can to ensure they do not continue to harm themselves & others with their behavior choice.
2. Your mindset is that we should treat the symptom & not the problem is naive to how STI’s are treated/spread. Those who work in sex work are less likely to “wait” before engaging in sexual activity when being treated for STI’s. Most infections need a good 1-2wk window of treatment & abstaining from sex to ensure the infection is fully cured & not at risk to pass on to others. Prostitutes do not “call out sick” for 2wks when they get an STI. They are the reason we are seeing drug resistant strains of STI’s because they go to clinics, get tested, get treatment and pass on the infection before the antibiotic fully cures the bacteria. Those people they pass on the disease to now have resistant strains that are that much harder to treat. It is medically/technically BETTER for an individual to NOT get treatment for chlamydia & gonorrhea and let it damage their own body then to get treatment for themselves while passing on to numerous others strains of the disease that have now become abx resistant. As to viral STI’s such as HPV, Herpes, Genital warts–there is NO cure…so what is the difference between Planned Parenthood telling a sex worker they have it if they are going to continue in their job anyways. Do you think they are going to suddenly retire just because they were told they now have a disease they will have for the rest of their life & pass on??
3. Anyone who does not report suspicion of human trafficking of minors needs to be prosecuted criminally. There is NO excuse.
Exactly Sydney! Adult women have free will, if they want to sell themselves, then they have the power to do it
Ninek-That’s a lie that I used to believe. Sex work is never done of an adult woman’s free will- she is a slave. She is a rape victim. Around 90% of women who engage in sex-based work, even stripping and modeling, were sexually abused as children and choose this career because it is the only thing that feels “normal” to them. They don’t know how not to be abused or that they have something to offer other than sex. And because it never stops being degrading and painful, they self-medicate with drugs and alcohol which they have to keep selling their bodies to buy, trapping them in a vicious cycle where they can not just choose to stop selling themselves. Add to it that they have pimps who abuse them and threaten their lives if they stop bringing in the money- no they DON’T have free will. They are victims that need people to rescue them, help care for them and get them up on their feet like the parents they never had. I know people who do this and they, like me, would agree that your statement is a lie. We can’t make women accept help if they choose not to, true, but we can’t act that women who do this do it because they want to.
I raise devastating points re: PP and LittleZ shows up to derail the thread. You are an incredibly small person LittleZ. Your comments speak for themselves.
Jacqueline, I’m sorry for the kind of women you refer to. However, my own personal experience with women who’ve worked in the sex trade was that the women I met did NOT work for pimps. One was independent, and worked for herself. She used her stripping to meet clients, but she didn’t have to share her money with a pimp. She did have to spend some of that money to use the facility she bedded her clients down in, since she didn’t take them home. Another gal is still in the business. I totally agree that almost all women in the sex industry were abused as minors, but not all victims of sexual abuse go on to choose that life. The gals I know are sad cases, too, but not all prostitutes have pimps. Many do, and it is certainly a modern form of slavery that certainly does need to stop.
Even in a best case, you still have a woman who thinks that her body is all she has to offer. By mid 30’s, she’s often chronically ill due to the STD’s, and has no job skills. Some have had college, but are so demoralized and have no job history that they can declare, so they find it hard to be employed in a “regular job.”
However, unlike Biggz, I don’t throw an antibiotic at a little girl and tell her to get back to work.
I think I have figured out littlez. He/she is someone just seeing how preposterous they can be, thinking up the most outrageous things to say just to yank our chain. Surely no one in the real world can be that moronic.
Cecile Richards is in panic mode. She insists we can’t let this 95 year-old institution go by the wayside.
Hey Cecile:Yes We Can!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_-SISnyIEK8
That you want to wage war on the rights of women in your country makes me so proud and happy to be a Canadian citizen. Thank God I live in a country where morally-superior Christians and their ilk have no say in my access to birth control. I pray for your daughters, for as your strip them of their rights, they will undoubtedly rebel and demand them back. You can only keep people in the dark for so long. Conservatism in America has seen it’s last fifteen minutes.
Aw, Brittney. I will soon be a Canadian citizen myself and shall assure you that the exploitation of women by abortion and birth control will soon see its last 15 minutes.
I have so many questions!
But is the defunding of Planned Parenthood only for the next year or is it forever? Is this a battle that has to be fought every year?
And what about other abortion organizations like NAARL – are there more that are funded by our tax payer money?
And why is PP so important that it has to get all this taxpayer money when it’s a private company, when it’s not even a Federal agency or a quasi governmental organization?
I know the strain of eugenics and evil runs strong in our society, but wow – are they that powerful that they have the US taxpayer wrapped around their big fingers?
Have you seen the pictures coming out of the annual March for Life, Brittney?
Thousands upon thousands of young people taking it to the streets.
I don’t think they’re going to “undoubtedly rebel” and demand another 51 million Americans get curettaged. They’re already rebelling- against PP!
Putting abortion aside, let’s just say that PP is only about birth control. That’s it. No abortions anywhere on the menu. Just foams, jellies, pills, sponges, rods, shots, prophylactics, etc.
If it’s that crucial and necessary, why not allow the private sector to take it on and not involve my tax dollars? Have the undertaxed millionaires and billionaires produce a sustainable business model that gives the “access” that PP insists it needs.
In other words, PP should continue not as a government-propped enterprise, but as a self-sustaining entity that provides their precious services, still pay its employees, and leave the taxpayers alone.
That’s half the battle right there, Brittney. U.S. taxpayers en masse are in no mood to spend money that’s not there, regardless of what it’s funding. Even for some libertarian prochoicers I know, they’re fine with abortion, they just don’t feel they should have to pay for an organization to do it. Or for someone else’s condoms.
Something called a Trillion-Dollar-Deficit tends to get in the way.
Well Brittney, my sister is now a Canadian and VERY FERTILE. She is raising her children to be little pro-life warriors who will make sure that women all around the world cannot kill their children with impunity. They will make sure women are offered real options not the violent destruction abortion brings. So I am doing my part in the US and my sister and many many more loving women like her are doing their part in Canada. Hold on to your seat Brittney!
P.S. I march for like on Parliament Hill in Ottawa every year and our numbers continue to grow. Canadians killing babies up until birth for any or no reason at all is about to end.
Anyone know whether PP still has any open Medicaid fraud cases, or have they settled all of them?
Our daughters? All of our daughters have a right to be born.
Biggz: You go to a pro-life blog written and administered by a major pro-life activist who educates and informs the pro-life community about pro-life issues from a pro-life perspective, and expect the people here to be doing what? Debating…abortion? Debating what about abortion exactly? We’ve pretty much gotten beyond that point. We know the baby is, in fact, a baby, and that aborting, ie, killing said baby would be, in fact, murder. Therefore, exactly what is there to debate?
There is absolutely nothing to debate. All abortionist “arguments” are fallacies and all have been decisively and relentlessly refuted. The only reason there is a movement in opposition to unborn human rights is because a certain segment of the human population has a psychological need to support and be able to commit the crime of prenatal homicide.
It has been demonstrated conclusively that killing human beings at any stage of our lives, whether born or unborn, is a crime and should be prohibited.
if I had children, they would be taught to respect their bodies, that sleeping around is wrong because its not saving yourself for your spouse (and its also showing disrespect for that future spouse) and also be told about the dangerous side effects of the pill (blood clots, high risk for cancer are two examples). They would also be taught that EVERY LIFE is valuable, from the unborn baby to the invalid grandmother at a nursing home. And all of my nieces (well, not the 10 month old yet) are very much against abortion.
They would also be taught about how the radical feminist movement has twisted Women’s rights so they deny the right of the unborn FEMALE children to be born.
They would also be taught that motherhood is not a dirty word, but a rewarding profession.
Okay, taking opinions on this question (from pro-lifers, not trolls) – if my state’s senators are really, really unlikely to vote to defund PP, do you think I should bother to contact them about it anyway? I’m stuck with Amy Klobuchar and (shudder) Al Franken.
I think you should.
I am right across the St. Croix from you.
Doyle, Feingold, Kind sent me the same ol emails all.the.time. and I kept making my voice heard. Although totally frustrating, I wanted to at least have my say!
Go Scott Walker!! :)
Janet, my guess is that those 7 Republicans have received endorsements from pro-abortion organizations and don’t want to lose those endorsements.
Brittney, do Canadians routinely stand up for the right of women to be sex slaves? I think Justin Bieber would disapprove.
Marauder
You probably don’t have time to do this but I think what would be effective is to write them a nice long letter and e-mail them one copy and hand deliver the other one. Part of the letter could state please forgive my sense of urgency but if you were in the womb of a woman who was receiving planned parenthood advice I suspect you would understand. My real belief is that some politiicians have sold out to the dark side and the only argument they will understand is losing their next election. There dealing with great big bullies and they don’t have a clue how to handle them.. What they could really use is that thing the priest goes around with and sprinkles people with when he’s in a big crowd! It dispences Holy Water.
Britney,
What rights are being stripped away from young girls besides the “right” to kill an unborn child? No one is telling girls they can’t have their freedom or to have an active sex life. People seem to forget that with freedom comes responsibility, if you choose to have sex there are consequences to it. This is why people make such a big deal about safe sex, to prevent unwanted pregnancies so these situations don’t have to happen.
I understand how difficult it may be to raise a child but there are plenty of parents with born children who go through the same problems, they can’t kill their child in the name of rights because it’s not a right, so it shoudln’t be a right to kill the unborn either. IF PP was all about supporting women and their children without the option of aborting then taxpayers would have no problem supporting them. Which is why we have crisis pregnancy centers, we want orgs. that care for the woman AND the child.
BTW, you make it sound like if you are pro-life then you must have it out for young women. This is not about targeting women, I didn’t decide that only women could get pregnant, if men could then PP still wouldn’t get our support.