A lot of time, thought and effort went into this post. So please read it.
The most annoying thing will be that before even reading this post some people are going to automatically go into the mind state that the only thing Planned Parenthood does is use tax payer’s money to pay for abortions. Please continue reading, because there is a lot more to it.
How fitting, after doing a post about how the teen pregnancy rate has lowered there is now a big issue with what will happen to Planned Parenthood if the Government Shutdown occurs.
On CBS News there was a tagline that said: Defund Abortion Providers.
Really? That is not all Planned Parenthood is.
CBS reports that 75 percent of Planned Parenthood clients are living close to the poverty line. The lack of funding or cutting the program all together could lead to terrible things; people need to NOT just associate Planned Parenthood with abortions:
“Planned Parenthood provides a wide array of medical services including reproductive health care, cancer screenings, and STD testing at more than 800 locations across the country. They are also the country’s largest abortion provider.”
Yes. It is the country’s largest abortion provider and federal government funding abortion is not something that every Pro-Choice person agrees with; so put aside the fact that Planned Parenthood is mostly known for abortions and yes, the funding for Planned Parenthood indeed does go to abortions.
CBS continues to talk about those on the right who are opposed to government funding Planned Parenthood. What it should be saying is that there are a lot of Conservatives who are Pro-Life and think that all Planned Parenthood does is take tax-payer’s money and have them pay for abortions. No, that’s not it.
The CBS report emphasizes on that:
Republican lawmakers have questioned government funding of Planned Parenthood, saying the government shouldn’t be in the business of supporting abortion – even indirectly. Planned Parenting receives government support, though the funds are used for purposes other than abortions.
As the article goes on it continues to talk about abortion:
“For all the controversy, abortion remains a common procedure in the U.S. A long-term decline in the abortion rate stalled between 2005 and 2008, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In 2008, 1.21 million abortions were performed, with about 40 percent of unintended pregnancies now being terminated by abortion.
“Abortion yields 37 percent of all Planned Parenthood revenues by conservative estimates,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said in an interview, according to a written statement released by her office. ”
This is so redundant.
Could people please realize that there’s a lot more than abortions going on.
STD checks, pelvic exams, etc.
Money is brought up once again:
An agency statement says 3 percent of their services are devoted to abortion. They didn’t break out the revenue. They also claim to prevent more than half-a-million unintended pregnancies each year by distributing contraceptives. They estimate their efforts prevent 290,000 abortions each year.
Yes this blog post is using the CBS report, because the report from CBS was the most informative out of all the sources reporting on this.
And now we have this:
“Ayotte said he was also worried about a recent “sting” operation by the antiabortion group Live Action, in which men posing as pimps were videotaped interacting with Planned Parenthood workers.
“I’m troubled by what’s come out in the videos that have shown that they were essentially looking the other way on sex-trafficking,” Ayotte wrote.
Planned Parenthood isn’t taking the criticism lying down.”
Well, here’s what Planned Parenthood has to say. This is the most important piece of this entire post:
“Reasonable people could have agreed on funding the government weeks ago, but a small group of extremists has been allowed to hold the government hostage to their narrow political agenda – one that has no place in the budget process,” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said in a written statement. “It is truly unacceptable that a small group with an extreme political agenda is forcing a shutdown of the United States government over a dangerous proposal that would bar women from getting the lifesaving health care they need – breast exams, Pap tests, HIV tests and more.”
Since this is a blog post and not an article objectivity doesn’t need to be an issue; because it is going to be annoying how many skim this post and just think oh well all they do is abortions and take money. Negative, negative, negative.
Go for it, complain it should be a state by state thing and not a federal thing, but guess what? Until states do it themselves the Feds NEED to. If each state was doing this then the Federal Government shut down wouldn’t be such a big deal. So many conservatives say they believe things should be “up to the state.” Well guess what, the states haven’t done it yet, and in regards to the other shut downs I think that it would be better to have the clean water act that the federal government has to contribute and fund rather than having nothing at all. Yes, leave it to the states, but until the states do anything people are getting screwed.
And the people who are screwed might need to go to Planned Parenthood and get that checked out.
–Nikky Raney
Because I’m Nikky Raney & you’re not.
Student, blogger & aspiring journalist as well as editor.
I have already been a paid journalist and I have a lot of experience.
Worked for political campaigns as well as at a television station.
I am currently attending New England School of Communications in Bangor, Maine.
I was Managing Editor and was one of the creators in 2006 of the largest student run newspaper in New England: The Tide, at Dover High School in Dover, New Hampshire.
I was born June 7, 1990 in the Philippines.
My personal site is The Future of Journalism – NikkyRaney.com
You can follow me on twitter – http://twitter.com/nikkyraney