Who Really Loses When Planned Parenthood Loses Funding?
I drove home yesterday after a long day on my feet caring for a variety of patients with cancer. The last patient of the day is 23 and was diagnosed with a virulent form of cervical cancer related to a Human Pappilloma Virus (HPV) infection just six weeks ago. She was initially diagnosed by her nurse practitioner at a Planned Parenthood and came to my hospital for surgery and chemotherapy. She has a more than 75% chance of survival and although she will never bear children of her own, she will live to adopt, be an aunt, finish college, get married and get on with her life. Her journey to my chemo chair was heavy on my mind as I listened to All Things Considered on NPR and heard the story I have linked to below.
Then this morning I saw on CNN that the courts have said Indiana can restrict funding to Planned Parenthood so I guess that makes it official. If you are poor and uninsured in Indiana, you can also plan on not having access to contraception, an affordable pap smear or a mammogram. Good times.
Every few months, and certainly every election cycle, the far right anti abortion advocates sprout up like weeds and begin to spew half truths and out right falsehoods about Planned Parenthood. Elected officials who want to remain elected then begin their difficult tap dance of being "pro woman, but not pro choice." and in the end once again, it is the poor and uninsured that bear the burden of electoral politics. Planned Parenthood is not an abortion factory. In fact only 12% of all people served by Planned Parenthood in the last 12 months sought an abortion. Of all the health care related services provided by Planned Parenthood only 3% are related to abortion, and those services are not federally funded.
That is in sharp contrast to the estimated 600,000 unplanned pregnancies prevented by the contraception provided by Planned Parenthood. In fact with their educational efforts, clinics, and outreach in developing countries Planned Parenthood serves over 5 million people annually. No, they are not all teenagers trying to get condoms, in fact, only about 20% of Planned Parenthood's clients are less than age 20.
Do not misunderstand me, I do not believe 13 year old's should be able to have an abortion on a street corner or have access to condoms in the lunchroom-"juice box or prophylactic?" But I do think it is time to stop making the entire reproductive health conversation about abortion. Frankly, if we have the conversation like reasonable adults, abortion will be the smallest part of the equation when all is said and done.
We can't afford to demonize an entire organization for providing services that are LEGAL. I don't like abortion, and I would prefer no one ever needed one. But I live here, in reality, where women are raped by family members, diagnosed with cancer during their first trimester, and discover Tay Sachs in their genetic stew after becoming pregnant. Sometimes, abortion is a valid choice and it is a LEGAL choice.
I have two biological children, the first was the result of a lot of love, and a failure of our contraceptives. I do not regret him for a moment-but when I became pregnant I was 28, in a loving relationship, employed, insured, and healthy. I had options that many women can't even imagine. I am now parenting that child through the teenage years and having conversations that make my insides squirm.
But again, I am having those conversation now, and offering information now, so that I do not have to be a shoulder to cry on later. My sons will both have the Gardasil vaccine, not because I want them to go out and bed every woman in the county, but because I do not want them or the partner they do eventually have a physical, sexual relationship with to be at risk for HPV.
What makes me angriest is that when "pro-life" organizations rally against Planned Parenthood they are not rallying for the lives of women-they are rallying for the fetuses women could potentially carry, not the living human beings seeking health care. Last year 1 million women got their pap smears at a Planned Parenthood. The bulk paid on a sliding scale and would not have gone to another doctor due to cost. These women deserve to continue getting care that is focused on their needs and those of their families.
Pro life should mean more than anti abortion. Being pro life should mean advocating for safe health care for people in all stages of life. Instead of having the same arguments over funding and Planned Parenthood elected officials should focus on the lives of their constituents, and making it possible for them to have healthy productive lives that fulfill the American dream.
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/10/136174361/indiana-bill-would-slash-planned-parenthood-funding
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tea tom
Barbara Weicksel
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http://community.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2011/03/12/video-planned-parenthood-cuts/
Congrats on the well-deserved Editor's Pick. Rated.
Let's do all what we can to end the war on women and sexuality.
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Unfortunatley this miopic view seems to run into all aspects of this latest GOP leadership group. So i fear this is just the single piece of the bigger mosaic of really bad ideas from the GOP leadership.
Their financial ideas match up..
Shut down the government to get power to rule what you just destroyed? YOU KILLED THE NATION, what's to rule..duh!
They just want your rights and life, and total obedience and servitude, nothing more or less.
I thought they were the party of freedoms.
Genesis 38:24. Tamar's pregnancy was discovered three months after conception, presumably because it was visible at the time.
This was proof that she was sexually active. Because she was a widow, without a husband, she was assumed to be a prostitute. Her father-in-law, Judah, ordered that she be burned alive for her crime.
If Tamar's fetuses had been considered to have any value whatsoever, her execution would have been delayed until after their birth.
There was no condemnation on Judah for deciding to take this action.
Exodus 21:22-24. If two men are fighting and one injures a pregnant woman and the fetus is killed, he shall repay her according to the degree of injury inflicted upon her, and not the fetus.
Author Brian McKinley, a born-again Christian, sums up the passage as:
"Thus we can see that if the baby is lost, it does not require a death sentence-it is not considered murder. But if the woman is lost, it is considered murder and is punished by death."
Halacha (Jewish Law) does define when a fetus becomes a nephesh (person), a full-fledged human being, when the head emerges from the womb. Before then, the fetus is considered a "partial-life"; it gains full human status after birth only.
With the exception of some Orthodox authorities, Judaism supports abortion access for women. Each case must be decided individually by a rabbi well-versed in Jewish law.
The Babylonian Talmud (Yevamot 69b) states that: "the embryo is considered to be mere water until the fortieth day." Afterward, it is considered subhuman until it is born.
Rashi, the great 12th century commentator on the Bible and the Talmud, states clearly of the fetus 'lav nephesh hu -- it is not a person.'
The Talmud contains the expression, "the thigh of its mother," i.e., the fetus is deemed to be part and parcel of the pregnant woman's body.
This is grounded in Exodus 21:22. That biblical passage outlines the Mosaic Law in a case where a man is responsible for causing a woman's miscarriage, which kills the fetus.
If the woman survives, then the perpetrator has to pay a fine to the woman's husband. If the woman is killed, the perpetrator is also killed. This indicates that the fetus has value, but does not have the status of a person.
There are two additional passages in the Talmud which shed some light on abortion. They imply that the fetus is considered part of its mother:
One section states that if a man purchases a cow that is found to be pregnant, then he is owner of both the cow and the fetus.
Another section states that if a pregnant woman converts to Judaism, that her conversion also applies to her fetus.
Some Jewish authorities have ruled in specific cases. one case involved a woman who becomes pregnant while nursing a child. Her milk supply would dry up. If the child is allergic to all other forms of nutrition except mother's milk, then it would starve.
An abortion would be permitted in this case, a potential person, would be justified to save the life of the child, an actual person.
Polls have found up to 90% of American Jews supporting abortion rights.
The New Testament is more permissive than the Old!
Jesus repeatedly upheld Mosaic Law (Matthew 5:17-19; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 16:17) as did his apostles (see chapters 10, 15, and 21 of Acts). Paul, however, not only claims Mosaic Law has been abolished, but claims Jesus said to him three times, "my grace is sufficient for thee" (II Corinthians 12:8-9).
Some Christians misinterpret this verse to mean they're free to do as they please--ignoring the rest of the New Testament altogether!
The late Reverend Janet Regina Hyland (1933-2007), raised Catholic but went on to become an evangelical minister, a vegan, and author of God's Covenant with Animals (it's available through PETA), told me they're quoting Paul out of context.
Paul, she observed, was very strict with himself:
"But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." (I Corinthians 9:27)
Regina Hyland said this verse indicates it's possible for one to lose one's salvation (a serious point of contention among born agains!).
Christians focusing solely on II Corinthians 12:8-9 MUST be quoting Paul out of context, because otherwise it doesn't make any sense:
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Paul repeatedly attacked sexual immorality.
"This is God's will—your sanctification, that you keep yourselves from sexual immorality, that each of you learn how to take his own wife in purity and honor, not in lustful passion like the gentiles who have no knowledge of God." (I Thessalonians 4:3-5)
"Make no mistake," warned Paul, "no fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or slanderers or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God." (I Corinthians 6:9-10 [NEB])
Paul told the gentiles to train themselves for godliness, to practice self-control and lead upright, godly lives (Galatians 5:23; I Timothy 4:7; II Timothy 1:7; Titus 2:11-12).
He instructed them to ALWAYS pray constantly. (I Thessalonians 5:17)
Paul wrote further that women should cover their heads while worshiping, and that long hair on males is dishonorable. (I Corinthians 11:5-14)
According to Paul, Christian women are to dress modestly and prudently, and are not to be adorned with braided hair, gold or pearls or expensive clothes. (I Timothy 2:9)
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On the one hand, Paul gives moral instructions throughout his epistles, often warning that those who fail to observe them will not inherit the kingdom of God.
And on the other hand, "three times...'my grace is sufficient for thee'..." means you can do whatever you want?!
Why then did Paul give the moral instructions in the first place?
And what's the use in presenting a case against abortion if the other side will only dismiss it with "three times..." ?
Secular pro-life arguments are religiously neutral and thus applicable to everyone, including atheists and agnostics.
The pro-life movement ALREADY HAS the support of organized religion.
Instead of preaching to the choir, i.e., wasting time with religion, pro-lifers should focus on embryology and prenatal development, DNA, RNA, etc. to make their case to our mainstream secular society.
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As for the religious tirade, it proves nothing more than religious teaching can be fully as barbaric as radical Muslims and zealous collectivists like our beloved president.