Planned Parenthood and Compassion

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I believe in birth control.  I believe the state should provide birth control to those too poor to afford it.  To not take any chances, I would make it available to any woman who asked for it no questions asked.  Yes, and I would throw in the recommended doctor visits, etc. to do the job right.  The other choice is to risk a woman having a child or pregnancy she doesn't want and can't afford.  Neither a good outcome, nor a necessary one in our prosperous society.

Based on their website, Planned Parenthood provides services relating to reproduction and sexual health.  Sounds good.  I assume patients on medicaid or medicare can use their services.  Birth control is high on their agenda! Good!

Defunding Planned Parenthood

There is a push on to de-fund planned parenthood because of some videos on line from Center for Medical Progress (CMP) who interviewed Planned Parenthood (PP) management about buying fetal tissue from abortions.  PP does seem to be on the ragged edge of selling fetal tissue in these interviews, although their position is that they are just covering shipping and handling costs.  However, if they are just covering costs, that should just be a number furnished by accountants with minimal wiggle room.  The negotiation did sound like a negotiation over a price, not a cost. 

PP also seemed willing to alter their procedure to minimize damage to the tissue from the fetus.   CMP implies they are doing partial birth abortions, which is illegal, and if true should be prosecuted.  I am not a lawyer or a prosecutor, but if they broke the law then some appropriate prosecutor should charge them.   (I don't understand the rationale for the law that was passed under Bush's Presidency.  But, if it is the law, then we should follow it or change it.)

CMP also interviewed someone that they claimed was an ex-employee of Planned Parenthood.  I have no idea if what she said was true or a lie or if she was really an ex-employee.  In either case, she described a pretty gross procedure to remove the brain tissue of a live fetus.  Again, I think CMP is implying PP broke the law.  Again if the law was broken, it should be prosecuted.  And if true, and legal it is still pretty sickening stuff.  Abortions at best are an ugly business. And, if we must have abortions, maybe there is some room for defining what is allowed in an abortion. 

Quantity of Abortions in the U.S.

There are about a million abortions a year in the U.S. and about two million unwanted pregnancies.  See Facts about Abortion from Guttmacher Institute and Centers for Disease Control.   People on medicaid are about 3.7 times as likely to get an abortion than the rest of the population.  About 57% of their services of PP are paid for by the clients, the balance split pretty evenly between insurance and medicaid. The federal government kicks Iin about $500 million a year.

I looked at the foot print of PP ... it is huge and offers thousands of people services everyday.  It looks like mostly birth control, cancer screening, ultrasounds to check baby health, and similar.  And yes, also Abortions.   

Impact of Defunding PP

When I heard Republicans in Congress are attempting to defund PP it must mean that they want to stop poor people on medicaid from being able to get abortions.  My gut reaction is that this is an alliance between Rich people and those that believe abortions are wrong.  Poor women, and the children born, will be the ones to suffer.  However, I found out that medicaid can only be used in 15 states for abortion.  So, in the other 35 states defunding medicaid would mean that poor people using medicaid for birth control, cancer screening, etc. would be defunded.  So, the biggest effect of defunding PP would be to reduce birth control to poor people which would result in more unwanted children being born and perhaps more future abortions, not less. Ironic!

And yes, the $500 million from the federal government Can not be spent on abortions. So, cutting that money out means more unwanted pregnancies! More unwanted births, probably more people in poverty and on welfare.  Great plan. Before we throw out the bath Water we need a plan b.

The Bigger Picture

Here is the shame I see ... 

1,000,000 abortions means birth control (availability, use, education, or efficacy) failed 1,000,000 times.  We must be able to do better. More morning after pills, or something.  Shouldn't we all be working together to do a better job with birth control? What am I missing? 

So what do I vote?

So, my vote is to let Planned Parenthood keep providing services to the poor, mostly birth control, using medicaid.  And prosecute PP if they broke the law or if they do break the law.  And CMP, if you think PP broke the law, find a prosecutor somewhere, give him your evidence and see where it goes.  I am inclined to believe that CMP is very biased and they have carefully edited what they have to look as bad as possible and they have prompted the ex-employees to exaggerate, but I could be wrong.

It seems the biggest impact of stopping medicaid from funding services by PP would be to reduce poor people's access to birth control in 35 states ... .  I say let's have compassion on these women and let's make sure they get birth control.