The bad news first:
Indiana is on the way to becoming the first state to prohibit Medicaid patients from visiting Planned Parenthood clinics after the Senate today approved a bill that would cut off taxpayer money to the Planned Parenthood of Indiana because it performs abortions.
“The taxpayers will no longer fund an organization that provides abortion as part of their services that they give to the public,” said Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, who introduced the bill for the sponsor, Sen. Pat Miller.
The Senate voted 13 to 35 to approve HB1210, a wide-ranging abortion bill that would cut off federal taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood of Indiana.
The bill also sets 20 weeks as the cut-off when a woman can no longer seek an abortion. The current cut-off is viability, which a doctor determines, usually around 24 weeks. It codifies into law the idea that a fetus feels pain at 20 weeks and it requires doctors to tell women seeking abortions certain information, such as that abortion is linked to infertility.
Aka, lie and harm thousands of women in the process. Good going, Indiana!
If you’d like a small respite from the rage, I’d like to direct you to this delightful feminist rant by a 10 year old girl from Avon, IN. A small glimmer of hope that Indiana doesn’t suck the intelligence and independence out of everyone. But at the same time, a sad reminder of the kind of misogynistic environment this little girl is growing up in.
A long time ago I knew a very similar little girl – she moved away from that backwards state the moment she could.
Geez… Planned Parenthood provides a lot of necessary services that AREN’T abortion (only 3% of what they do is abortion) to a lot of women who can’t afford services otherwise. Pro-life as I am, I think defunding them is stupid.
I should also mention… I’m at really high-risk for my next pregnancy after having HELLP Syndrome with my son. With pre-eclampsia (and HELLP which is a variant), the only real treatment is to deliver the baby or both the mother and child die. It’s why I’m pro-life but I’d rather see abortion exist in a government-regulated fashion — getting pregnant could easily kill me and I’d like to know that my life is valued as high as that of my unborn child.(There’s also that whole “not my body and thus can’t make the decision” factor.)
I went to Planned Parenthood many many times in college and I didn’t get one abortion. *sigh*
Defunding Planned Parenthood is a good thing. What makes you think it’s not?
“‘Id rather see abortion exist in a government-regulated fashion”That’s your problem right there. The government is broke. How is a broke government going to fund those wonderful services you are wishing for?
You’re the one who wants a change, you prove it’s necessary or desirable. <– REAL conservatism in a nutshell.Well?
I wasn’t asking you, but since you decided to be a bitch about it I will ask you:How do you expect a broke government to fund welfare programs like Medicaid and Planned Parenthood?
To answer your non-argument, the amount of money thrown at PP is barely a drop in the bucket, and is thus completely justifiable considering the valuable services they provide. I think we can agree that budget issues are not the main motivation to defend PP, can’t we? When it comes to say, the military, there seems to be no problem with that kind of spending!
I’m not asking the government to fund it — I’m simply stating that I’d rather abortion be government-regulated if it has to exist than the back alley method of yesteryear, the coat hanger method, or the “go to Mexico” method. (The rich would go to Canada or Europe.) I’d prefer that abortion *WASN’T* a reality but since it is, I’d rather it be regulated.
My friends used it as a way to get birth control and have their yearly exams. BC was $9/month at my school’s pharmacy so I just went through them. It was cheaper than my parents’ insurance.
Nope budget issues are the ISSUE here:Planned Parenthood receives about a third of its money in government grants and contracts (about $360 million in 2009)[…]Planned Parenthood is also funded by private donors, with a membership base of over 700,000 active donors whose contributions account for approximately one quarter of the organization’s revenue.[37] Large donors also contribute a substantial portion of the organization’s budget; donors have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Buffett Foundation, Ford Foundation, Ted Turner Foundation, the Cullmans and others.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…***So why screw over taxpayers that are already struggling in this depression economy?why not solicit wealthy foundations as PP has been funded before?So my argument is that government funding of welfare programs is a bad thing because it does it via taxation (or deficit spending). The state of Indiana is broke…well beyond broke…in the red about $23 billion in 2010.This question goes out to the liberals here: How do you expect a broke government to pay for welfare services like PP?
“Aka, lie and harm thousands of women in the process. Good going, Indiana!”You’re implying that the government should fund it with that remark.Abortion is already government regulated by each individual state within the USA. You’re asking for something that’s already been happening since Roe. vs. Wade.What I’m arguing is that taxpayers should not foot the bill for abortion. The funds should come from the private sector.
I didn’t have insurance while I was in college. :-(
The 2010 defense budget alone was over $600 billion. There is little justification to defund a vital service like PP when it presents such a negligible cost by comparison. In light of this I think it’s clear that money is not the true motivation.
How about by demanding that corporations pay their damn taxes?Wally, I am a taxpayer. And if Planned Parenthood couldn’t do what they do, I would be a hell of a lot worse off. Because a doctor’s visit costs a hell of a lot more than the tiny portion of my taxes that go to Planned Parenthood. If I had to pay for a private practice I probably wouldn’t go, because I couldn’t afford it. And when something goes horribly wrong and I wind up in a public hospital… you, Mr. Taxpayer, would be paying for that. Do you know how much an emergency room visit costs?”Welfare programs” prevent us from falling into a Dickensian nightmare.
OK you want to talk budget now. I agree the defense budget is ridiculous. US military in two wars – Afghanistan, Iraq plus all the military bases that are in foreign countries, plus all the CIA operations that are forms of military aggression.So let’s say PP gets defunded. Would that be the end of the world?No. Doctor and nurse would have to be creative and find ways to perform health care services. Like homes, like churches, community health centers.Back in the day before we had government funded health care, doctors came to your home to take care of the sick. There’s no stopping doctors from doing that today. But I guess that would be illegal (government becomes the problem again).
Taxpayers already don’t “foot the bill for abortion”. And if funds are really what you are concerned about, you ought to consider the vastly greater downstream costs that result from denying support for birth control and preventative medicine programs. You think birth control is expensive? Try multiple children born to a mother who can’t support them.
Demanding that corporations pay their taxes would be like asking the Roman Catholic church to hold the Pope accountable for child abuse.Taxation transfers resources that could go to a productive sector in the economy (like corporations using that money to hire more people) to the government (which spends money like a drunken sailor).I know how much an emergency room visit costs…in the thousands at least.The interesting thing is: Why has healthcare skyrocketed over the past 10 years?The answer is counter-intuitive to liberal thought. Government is the problem, it’s not the solution.
Yes they do!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…Since 1970!The reason healthcare is so expensive is because of government subsidies!
You’re the one claiming that there’s no government money for PP and I merely pointed out one reason why that is not the case. Home, churches, and community health centers – who do you think is going to be paying for all this? Oh yes, all those taxpayers again. Not to mention that easy access to birth control and information about it would be much less common.And as far as doctors doing home visits, I seriously doubt there are enough doctors with enough time to do that sort of thing, or enough people able to pay for a home visit.
“By law, Planned Parenthood cannot allocate any federal funding for abortions.” You might want to try first reading links before you send them to see if they actually support your position. Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H…
You do get that this “Jen” is not the “Jen” who blogs here, right? Different people. Click on comment Jen’s name, and you’ll go to her christian website. Get Real, Wally.
I like how they used a stock photo of a little girl wearing pink…oh Jezebel, you are ridic sometimes.
My school (UC Santa Cruz) had a plan for all students and if you had insurance through your parents, you could opt out. I think it was a good thing — I don’t know if it covered anything off-campus but it probably helped out students not to go into debt if they got something that was treatable at the health center.
Oh, cripes, not THIS shit again.
What like the costs have in Australia?With our government supplied healthcare?(costs have gone up but not at the rate of USA expenses)
@WallyI don’t want my tax money going to farmers as subsidies (where’s the conservative rhetoric about the decline of work ethic for paying someone NOT to work?)…and Indiana farmers alone received $507 million in subsidies in 2009 . That’s over $100 million dollars more than you say PP took NATIONWIDE…so if you want to call de-funding PP a “budget” issue, then you have a funny way of balancing a budget. At least have the intellectual honesty to admit that if PP provided all reproductive services EXCEPT abortions, you would not have a problem with PP. And, according to your figures, even if PP used federal funds for abortions, it would be 3% of the $390 million…or about $11.7 million. That’s a budget-breaker, isn’t it?Besides, de-funding PP shifts the welfare burden to other services…it’s not as if you suddenly make the poor people disappear when you take away services they depend on. Where will these services receive their funding? No, Wally, we see through your subterfuge. You can mask your social agenda behind the “budget” facade, but you aren’t fooling anyone but yourself.
I can’t even bother to be sarcastic to idiots like this anymore.
Should every doctor carry a full operation room in his pocket for these housecalls. Medicine has advanced since the 1920’s and many of the new instruments are large and expensive so it make much more sense for the patients to come to a clinic then to have a doctor come to your home realize you need an MRI and ask you to go to the clinic. Healthcare (and public education) are not really spending but investment, a healthier more educated population is also more productive. The claim that if you don’t tax corporations they will create more jobs and the wealth will trickle down have been proven by the last few decades to be exactly what Gorge HW Bush called it voodoo economics and despite what the people who swoon over any piece of moronic drivel written by Ayn Rand claim government is not the problem, it may not be perfect but when you remove it you don’t get utopia you get Mogadishu. And to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, taxes is what you use to buy civilization.
I’m not certain if any of you actually live in Indiana. But unfortunately many of you do live in states dare I say, that are mirror images. As a man I have reservations about my opinion on abortion and whether or not my opinion is even valid. But as I have watched it seems as though we are being led down a road of the church replacing our goverment.Nobody wants to face the fact that what has led us here is an internal holy battle of our very own. While we sit in judgement at other countries and their unfamiliar customs and religions, we right here are at a crux of deciding whether we be ” in god we trust” or “in TRUTH we trust”. The time for scaring the peasents has passed.It is in cuts like these that you can see the part radical religious beliefs play in our own society. Make no mistake about it, excuses are plentiful(i.e, budget,debt ceiling,future generations,etc.) but in the end it is a social attack on reasonable thought and in my belief The United States most profound and powerful essence….FREEDOM!!!America has never fashioned itself a land of oppressors and bigots. I belive it’s time we start acting like we believe what we preach!! Man to man you would never watch another human suffer, so why do we collectively allow it? As I awake everyday in this place called Indiana, I am faced with unapologetic ignorance. Almost as if they delight in their abject refusal to accept that which isn’t shoved down their throats. For years I believed I should leave and find tarry with like minded people. But it is here that people of intelligence and reason are needed most, it is places such as this where people need to be shaken from their mental slumber and reminded of what they love about this country and their neighbors and citizens of the world. It is the front line of a battle against ignorance and hatred.
On any issue, including abortion, you should weigh the facts and the morality of the situation. It doesn’t matter what your gender is. You have a responsibility to get involved and fight for the needs of others. Your vote is worth much much more in a state like Indiana, which is on the cusp of being a swing state, than it is in a state like Vermont, which Obama will win without lifting a finger in 2012, or a state like Utah, where they would sooner vote for Satan than vote for a Democrat.
Our government manages to fund free universal healthcare. UK ftw.
As if it’s not enough legislating religious points, don’tcha just love it when they legislate things that ought to be determined scientifically?