OT: Raise your hand for PLANNED PARENTHOOD

raising both hands here too....   what really chaps my ass is the repetition of the lie that PP uses federal funds for abortion services.  they are prohibited BY LAW from doing so!   even then, abortion services are only 3% of their total budget....  the rest goes to reproductive health care services and cancer screenings for people who could not otherwise afford it.  anything anyone says to the contrary IS LYING TO PUSH THEIR POLITICAL AGENDA...  

i am personally opposed to abortion.  hence, i never had one nor considered one. but i have had friends and family who did choose to terminate pregnancies for their own, specific, personal reasons, and i'll be damned if i will ever stand in the way of anyone who feels it is the right choice FOR THEM.  it is a private decision between a woman, her doctor, and her chosen deity....  everyone else needs to butt the hell out...  

okay, off my soapbox now....


jeris

I'll second that!

I guess I'm confused.  If Planned Parenthood does not use federal dollars to fund abortions, then why is this even an issue with the folks in Washington?  Why are they trying to cut off funding?

The super super SUPER extreme right-wing fundies are trying to push that BIRTH CONTROL is evil and murder of unconceived babies (if so, what is masturbation?) therefore they are aiming to SHUT DOWN birth control as well as abortion

Part of it is a bit of racism too.... some people look at the stats that show that well-educated, middle-class white folks tend to have fewer babies than poorly educated lower-class non-white folks, and they have this whole fear of being outnumbered, so they want the baby-making to commence with fervor.

That's my take on it.

Thanks so much for the education!!!  I'm not real familiar with Planned Parenthood as, fortunately, I've never needed them, so thank you for bringing me up to speed on this.

Are the abortions actually federally funded, or is this just political rhetoric? 

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to explain this to me!!

DEB

The Hyde Amendment

After Roe v. Wade decriminalized abortion in 1973, Medicaid covered abortion care without restriction. In 1976, Representative Henry Hyde (R-IL) introduced an amendment that later passed to limit federal funding for abortion care. Effective in 1977, this provision, known as the Hyde Amendment, specifies what abortion services are covered under Medicaid.

Over the past two decades, Congress has debated the limited cir****tances under which federal funding for abortion should be allowed. For a brief period of time, coverage included cases of rape, incest, life endangerment, and physical health damage to the woman. However, beginning in 1979, the physical health exception was excluded, and in 1981 rape and incest exceptions were also excluded.

In September 1993, Congress rewrote the provision to include Medicaid funding for abortions in cases where the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. The present version of the Hyde Amendment requires coverage of abortion in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment.

So am I to understand that they are trying to take funding away for abortion in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment?  This would be so horribly wrong.

While I might hesitate to advocate the use of federal dollars for abortions of convenience, especially when they are used as a method of birth control, I would be so ashamed to deny an abortion to someone who needed one in the case of rape, incest, and life endangerment. 

Though I could never imagine myself having an abortion under normal cir****tances, I darn sure would in the event of a pregnancy that was the result of rape, incest, or life endangerment.

Again, than you so much for the education!!! 

So am I to understand that they are trying to take funding away for abortion in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment?  This would be so horribly wrong.

Yes, some lawmakers are trying to make it difficult if not impossible to get an abortion under any cir****tance. Here in Indiana we had a lawmaker who argued that women would lie about being raped to get an abortion, as if women are just running around getting pregnant just so we can all have abortions. 

Raising my hand! Growing up in the Bronx with an overly religious mother I was unaware that sex existed.  If it wasn't for PP when I was in high school, I probably would have been a single mother on welfare, or one of those girls delivering babies in the school toilet and leaving them there.

Thank you PP, for educating me on my reproductive health, and for giving the birth control that helped my terrible periods, and prevented me from getting pregnant well into my early twenties!

^This post^ proves the need for PP better than anything I have read. Well said.