The House voted today to stop federal funding of Planned Parenthood. The vote passed 240-185. That means 10 Democrats voted for this? Planned Parenthood (bless them, fund them, donate to them) gets one third of their funding from the government. And I never thought that I'd link to Fox News, but there's an article about how a proposal from Betty McCollum (D-MN) about cutting Nascar funding (WTF) was voted down, while cutting family planning funds down. Drag racing up, women's lives down! I'm trying to track down how representatives in Arkansas voted, but I know it's not good. What can you do? Sign a stupid internet petition, write a real letter, call, show up in person with a sign? Right now, bills are being crafted that will make it ok for a person to kill a doctor for performing an abortion if that person is doing it to save the fetus's life [Update: it's gone now, but why did it exist in the first place???]. It is all I can do to not send emails to all representatives in AR that just say "YOU FUCKING SUCK". I know it's not the end, but really? Birth control for horses, but not for human women.
Never let anyone say that there is no need for feminism anymore. Make them explain why. Make them explain this. And this. And this.
WTF indeed. NPR says the Senate will probably block it, but it shouldn't be the sort of thing that needs blocking in the first place. Shouldn't even have gotten as far as the House vote at all. I'm with you on the inarticulate emails, although right now it feels like throwing snowballs into hell.
ReplyDeleteTwo semi-hopeful thoughts, both of which I've heard somewhere in the online media world but whose source articles I can't recall...
ReplyDeleteFirst, with every move like this, the new GOP majority shows its true colors and the public grows more disconcerted. They're revealing themselves as the crazies they are pretty early in the game. The national electorate as a whole is NOT into the idea of pushing a radically conservative social agenda down our collective throats, and the Republicans will pay the price for this...which could be a good thing come 2012.
Second, Planned Parenthood receives what, $75 million in federal funding every year? While a lot of money, it's less than a tenth of the organization's overall budget. Compare that amount with the vast sums of cash from pro-choice donors that is poured year after year into the political battles waged over abortion (I don't know the figures, but I'm positive it's more than $75 million). Imagine if every dollar given to a pro-choice political advocacy group went instead directly into the coffers of Planned Parenthood or another family planning organization to provide services to patients. This isn't to say that such a switch could be easily pulled off, or that federal funding isn't important -- just that the organization could still survive without public money. For that matter, it would perhaps be freer to pursue its mission if it were.
I can't find the info on the PP website, but wikipedia (always true, right?) says government funding is 1/3. Didn't have a citation, though. It's just hard to believe that many representatives think so poorly of women. And I know all this is just making them look crazier, but I don't want to rest any of my hopes on them embarrassing themselves.
ReplyDeleteI don't want PP to rely completely on donations. It's something that truly deserves federal funding. Hell, it should be a government service.
* grumble grumble grumble *