House GOP Moves to End Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood

 

We’re used to the GOP Congress making headlines for breaking promises to their voters or letting Democrats pick their pockets. So it’s especially satisfying to hear Paul Ryan’s latest detail on the House Republicans’ Obamacare strategy: no more funds for Planned Parenthood.

Republicans plan to strip Planned Parenthood of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding as part of their rapid push to repeal President Obama’s health-care overhaul, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday.

Ryan said a defunding measure would appear in a special fast-track bill that is expected to pass Congress as soon as next month. “Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill,” he said at a news conference in response to a question about plans to defund the organization.

Reconciliation is a special congressional procedure allowing legislation to bypass a Senate filibuster, meaning it would need only a simple majority of senators to pass rather than a 60-vote supermajority.

Ryan made his comments two days after a special investigative panel formed by Republicans issued a report recommending that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, lose its access to Medicaid reimbursements and federal family-planning funds. The GOP report also recommended that Congress allow states to exclude abortion providers from their Medicaid programs.

The federal government gave Planned Parenthood $553 million in 2014, about half of its total funding. Technically, they’re not supposed to use that money for abortions, but that “service” is central to their mission.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blasted the move. “I just would like to speak individually to women across America,” she said. “This is about respect for you, for your judgment about your personal decisions in terms of your reproductive needs, the size and timing of your family or the rest, not to be determined by the insurance company or by the Republican ideological right-wing caucus in the House of Representatives.”

News for Pelosi: According to a recent Marist poll, 69 percent of women oppose taxpayer funding of abortion.

Published in Healthcare
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  1. Lily Bart Inactive
    Lily Bart
    @LilyBart

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: The federal government gave Planned Parenthood $553 million in 2014, about half of its total funding. Technically, they’re not supposed to use that money for abortions, but that “service” is central to their mission.

    When did we forget what “fungible” means?

    And if we’re ‘funding’ PP, we’re funding abortions.

    If they have the ‘choice’ to abort their baby, why don’t I have the ‘choice’ not to pay for it?

    • #31
  2. JustmeinAZ Member
    JustmeinAZ
    @JustmeinAZ

    Kozak (View Comment):
    Pregnancy test follows.

    Occasionally I return with the positive result to tears.

    These are some of the women who end up customers at PP.

    Well, I guess these are the women who are too stupid to get birth control. But doesn’t look like they are going to PP either. Still no reason I should have to pay for their abortions.

    • #32
  3. Songwriter Inactive
    Songwriter
    @user_19450

    La Tapada (View Comment):
    I wish our politicians would call it “stopping government subsidies of Planned Parenthood?” “Defunding” or “stopping funding” makes it sound like PP won’t be able to function without taxpayer money.

    Agreed.  But that would mean employing truthful, unbiased language – and I think we both know what the chances for that are.

    • #33
  4. Grey Lady Inactive
    Grey Lady
    @AimeeJones

    The King Prawn (View Comment):
    My reply to Ms. Pelosi can’t be made to conform to the CoC.

    Mine either.

    • #34
  5. Aaron Miller Inactive
    Aaron Miller
    @AaronMiller

    Like others, I’ll get excited when it actually happens.

    Half our nation still considers the license to kill innocent children sacrosanct. Rot of that magnitude leaves a long struggle ahead.

    • #35
  6. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    I deal every week with patients who have been cared for by PP in my moderate-sized New England city.   It’s cheap, assembly line contraceptive care.  Medical issues relevant to contraception are largely overlooked by the often overworked, usually inferior quality CNMs and PAs who provide most of the care.  There are no mammograms done, largely because there are few patients over 30.

    When I was in academic medicine, I spent five or six months overseeing a PP office in a nearby state, this after their medical director lost his license over a botched abortion.  Before my opposition to abortion got me canned, I managed to get some of the staff to at least pay attention to patients’ medical histories, to complicating factors, to signs of serious disease.

    Nothing happens at PP that could not happen, and would be done better,  in any PCP or ObGyn or Pediatrics office in America, except for the abortions.

    PP fills no legitimate niche in American medical culture.  They are the medical equivalent of the SPLC.  They are a scam to funnel millions of tax dollars to wealthy, elite abortionists.

    Eliminating tax payments is not enough.  Shut Down Planned Parenthood.

    • #36
  7. Buckpasser Member
    Buckpasser
    @Buckpasser

    JustmeinAZ (View Comment):
    Does Pelosi think women are too dumb to get a prescription from their GP? I understand birth control pill are very cheap.

    • #37
  8. cdor Member
    cdor
    @cdor

    Wiley (View Comment):
    Been liking the new post-November Jon and his posts.

    House GOP Moves to End Federal Funding of Planned Parenthood

    And I especially liked these two…

    The Bubble and the Pickup Truck

    The Election Was Not Hacked

    These were nice good-information ones…

    Trump’s Nominees (updated)

    Trump’s Nominees Don’t Like the Agencies They’ll Run? Good.

    Mapping the Vote

    Keep it up! You’re off my naughty list and on the good list. Thanks.

    Jon has always been great…he just had a very itchy rash for the last 8 months.

    • #38
  9. bridget Inactive
    bridget
    @bridget

    Nancy Pelosi blasted the move. “I just would like to speak individually to women across America,” she said. “This is about respect for you, for your judgment about your personal decisions in terms of your reproductive needs, the size and timing of your family or the rest….”

    This is entirely obnoxious.  Gallup polls consistently show that women self-identify as pro-choice only about 50% or 51% of the time, and over 40% identify as pro-life.  I believe that ending a child’s life is not, except in the most dire of situations, a matter of my judgement.  It’s simply wrong. I do not think that ending my child’s life is a valid personal decision.  I can time a family without ending the life of a member already part of it – albeit a small member whom no one has yet to meet.

    The one problem is that Republicans consistently sell this as “defunding” Planned Parenthood, rather than redirecting funds from the nation’s largest abortion provider to a larger, more comprehensive network of clinics, for the same services.  There are about ten times as many free or reduced-fee clinics as there are PP locations, and those clinics are in a wider variety of areas (i.e., suburbs and rural areas that PP is not). They also perform a wider variety of services (no, PP does not perform mammograms), which makes life easier on low-income women.

    • #39
  10. La Tapada Member
    La Tapada
    @LaTapada

    bridget (View Comment):

    ….The one problem is that Republicans consistently sell this as “defunding” Planned Parenthood, rather than redirecting funds from the nation’s largest abortion provider to a larger, more comprehensive network of clinics, for the same services. There are about ten times as many free or reduced-fee clinics as there are PP locations, and those clinics are in a wider variety of areas (i.e., suburbs and rural areas that PP is not)….

    Exactly!

    • #40
  11. Lady Randolph Inactive
    Lady Randolph
    @LadyRandolph

    HOORAY!!

    (If it actually happens.)

    • #41
  12. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Doctor Robert (View Comment):
    I deal every week with patients who have been cared for by PP in my moderate-sized New England city. It’s cheap, assembly line contraceptive care. Medical issues relevant to contraception are largely overlooked by the often overworked, usually inferior quality CNMs and PAs who provide most of the care. There are no mammograms done, largely because there are few patients over 30.

    When I was in academic medicine, I spent five or six months overseeing a PP office in a nearby state, this after their medical director lost his license over a botched abortion. Before my opposition to abortion got me canned, I managed to get some of the staff to at least pay attention to patients’ medical histories, to complicating factors, to signs of serious disease.

    Nothing happens at PP that could not happen, and would be done better, in any PCP or ObGyn or Pediatrics office in America, except for the abortions.

    PP fills no legitimate niche in American medical culture. They are the medical equivalent of the SPLC. They are a scam to funnel millions of tax dollars to wealthy, elite abortionists.

    Eliminating tax payments is not enough. Shut Down Planned Parenthood.

    You make it sound as though PP provides the equivalent of the back alley abortions that were once used as a club with which to beat the abortion opponents.

    • #42
  13. Umbra Fractus Inactive
    Umbra Fractus
    @UmbraFractus

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    You make it sound as though PP provides the equivalent of the back alley abortions that were once used as a club with which to beat the abortion opponents.

    A baby dies either way.

    • #43
  14. Johnnie Alum 13 Inactive
    Johnnie Alum 13
    @JohnnieAlum13

    • #44
  15. Antisocial-Introvert Member
    Antisocial-Introvert
    @ctregilgas

    I live and work in Austin, TX so naturally the liberal/progressives I work with assume I have the same beliefs they do. Last year, during a lunch out with several co-workers, some of them were complaining about the “horrible” undercover videos regarding PP selling baby parts. The horrible part being that they were edited and therefore must be false. When I asked them if the editing changed the fact that PP had cut up babies and sold them for parts, I was met with blank stares. “But they do so much good!” one person commented. My reply: “They cut up babies and sold them for parts.” Blank stares all around.

    • #45
  16. profdlp Inactive
    profdlp
    @profdlp

    When my (now-ex) wife suspected she might be pregnant (over thirty years ago), she did the home pregnancy test and it came back positive.  It did warn on the box that it wasn’t 100% reliable and to see a doctor.  We were dirt poor so she went to PP for the free pregnancy test, which was also positive.  PP immediately started twisting her arm to get an abortion.  She explained that she was married, did not believe in abortion, and was just trying to confirm the home test.  To make a long story short, they treated her about the same way you would be treated if you had an appointment to discuss buying into a time-share.  My ex finally had enough (this did not take long) and started heading for the door.  They followed her clear out to the parking lot, asking questions like “Is someone pressuring you to do this?” etc.  Our child was born later that year.

    Every time I hear this crap about PP being a “women’s health care provider” I think back to that day.  If my ex wasn’t so strong-willed she might easily have been talked into making a terrible mistake.  They certainly weren’t concerned about providing any health care to the woman – my daughter – who would not be here now if they had had their way.

    • #46
  17. Ray Kujawa Coolidge
    Ray Kujawa
    @RayKujawa

    Lily Bart (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Jon Gabriel, Ed.: The federal government gave Planned Parenthood $553 million in 2014, about half of its total funding. Technically, they’re not supposed to use that money for abortions, but that “service” is central to their mission.

    When did we forget what “fungible” means?

    And if we’re ‘funding’ PP, we’re funding abortions.

    If they have the ‘choice’ to abort their baby, why don’t I have the ‘choice’ not to pay for it?

    In public infrastructure, it’s known as “user fees” (aka tolls on bridges and toll roads). Get used to it. You have the choice not to use the bridge/road and not pay the toll. You have the choice to pay for it if you value the convenience of a one-stop service provider who values your privacy. Hey, there are probably some reasons why you might want to use PP and spend your own funds over using a real health provider (it’s hard for me to lump PP in with real health providers when one of their services is dealing in death).

    • #47
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