komen drops planned parenthood

[Riot]

This is just getting sadder and sadder. The overt political takeover of a prominent and respected, even loved, womans' health organization for political purposes.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/20...ed-parenthood/

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, secretly helped guide Komen Foundation’s disastrous strategy regarding Planned Parenthood.

Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations” at Komen last December.

According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.

Fleischer’s relationship with Komen and the Planned Parenthood controversy was previously undisclosed.

[Riot]

This is from Politico last year, when the same thing happened to Planned Parenthood, for the exact same reason, with the same zero proof, and with less outrage against it.

This predates Florida R-Cliff Stearns and his Committee renewed attack against Planned Parenthood. As Stearns and his committee has learned, Planned Parenthood has proven by it's paperwork that it uses zero taxpayer dollars for abortion services. That is in keeping with our current law that says exactly that: it is illegal to use any taxpayer dollars for abortion services.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49830.html
By DAVID NATHER & KATE NOCERA | 2/18/11 2:35 PM EDT

The House just approved Rep. R-Mike Pence’s amendment to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, checking off a hot-button social issue even as it set up a bigger showdown over defunding the health care law.

The vote was 240-185 with 11 Democrats voting for the amendment, and seven Republicans voting against. One member voted present. A group of Republicans on the floor applauded when the vote hit 218.

That amendment managed to suck up three hours of often emotional debate time Thursday night, which is a big part of the reason the health care law defunding votes got pushed into today.

Pence, of Indiana, touched off a vicious back-and-forth Thursday night in which Republicans insisted the organization is too aggressive about performing abortions and several Democrats charged that the GOP was waging a “war on women.”

Pence said the amendment captures a rough public consensus that they accept legal abortions, but don't want to pay for them.

He did get House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to weigh in on his side, declaring, “The time has come to respect the wishes of the majority of Americans who adamantly oppose using taxpayer dollars for abortions.”

Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler called the amendment a “bill of attainder”- saying it was unconstitutional as such because the legislation was targeting a specific group.

“[An attainder is] a legislative enacted penalty, in this case no funding, directed at an identifiable person or organization to punish them for something. Article I Section 9 says ‘no bill of attainder or ex post facto should be passed.’ Fundamental foundation of constitutional law. If Planned Parenthood or anyone else is doing terrible things and ought to be punished, that’s up to the courts,” said the New York congressman.

A longtime anti-abortion crusader, Pence has three times previously tried to cut off legislative funding, called Title X, for any group that provides abortions.

The money cannot be used to pay for abortions, and Pence has not argued that Planned Parenthood has used the funds to do so.

But he argues that cutting off support for millions of women’s health clinics would cut off their ability to perform the procedure.

“We should end the day when the largest abortion provider is the largest recipient of [Title X] federal funding,” he said.

“What’s clear to me, if you follow the money, you can actually take the funding supports out of abortion. We then have a much better opportunity to move forward to be a society that says yes to life.”

Planned Parenthood estimates it received a quarter of the $317 million in Title X funds appropriated last year. They use the money for pelvic exams, breast exams, safer-sex counseling and basic infertility counseling, among other things.

Pence took his fight against Planned Parenthood to the next level after the release of a series of videos by the group Live Action –videos that they say show Planned Parenthood employees advising actors posing as pimps on information on how to get abortions, STD testing and birth control for their underage prostitutes.

Cantor said last night that Planned Parenthood had been caught “red-handed.”

Anti-abortion Democrat Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts said last night that in spite of his beliefs, he supports the organization.

“This is about the ability of Planned Parenthood to conduct women's health care, to offer services that are deeply needed in many communities where no other source of health care is available…. I don't have many friends in the Planned Parenthood community. They don't support me. I am pro-life. But I respect the good work that they do,” he said.

[Riot]

Attacks on Planned Parenthood ....
By Meteor Blades

Look at the attacks on Planned Parenthood in the past year. Just one February ago, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence's "Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act," which, among other things, would have defunded Planned Parenthood, passed the House of Representatives. Just seven Republicans voted against it. Eleven Democrats voted for it. Given that the bill would have completely eliminated the National Family Planning Program (Title X), we were fortunate that it crashed in the Senate.

But that failure did not stop state actions. Indiana enacted legislation prohibiting agencies that provide abortion from receiving any funding through the state, including Medicaid. Wisconsin also adopted a provision barring agencies that provide abortion services or referrals from receiving funding through the state. North Carolina adopted a budgetary provision that specifically bans Planned Parenthood from obtaining funding, including Medicaid, through the state. New Hampshire did not renew its contract through which the Planned Parenthood affiliate in the state received federal Title X funds.

Kansas passed a law which includes provision that limits the distribution of Title X funds to health departments, hospitals and community health centers. Other types of family planning providers are not eligible, which includes Planned Parenthood. Texas now gives preference to health departments, community health centers and hospitals in the distribution of family planning funds, including Title X funds. Other family planning providers, like Planned Parenthood, can receive funding if there is any money left to distribute.

Implementation of some of these laws and provisions are being held up while the courts look at them. Some are in effect already. And we can expect more to come.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/0...yes&via=blog_1

Agree that Stearns is a butthole; unfortunately, he's my rep. in DC, but that could change as a result of a redistricting (gerrymandering again?) going on in the state now.

This Komen thing got me to thinking that they are now playing politics with women's bodies. Breasts are red-state and Republican, while wombs are blue-state and Democrat. Sad.

I won't give to Komen any more; their brand is tainted like another poster pointed out. I will continue to give to PP, and continue to vote against Stearns if given the opportunity.


Ocala Mike

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Ocala Mike

Agree that Stearns is a butthole; unfortunately, he's my rep. in DC, but that could change as a result of a redistricting (gerrymandering again?) going on in the state now.

This Komen thing got me to thinking that they are now playing politics with women's bodies. Breasts are red-state and Republican, while wombs are blue-state and Democrat. Sad.

I won't give to Komen any more; their brand is tainted like another poster pointed out. I will continue to give to PP, and continue to vote against Stearns if given the opportunity.


Ocala Mike

they've been playing politics with women's bodies for years. it has to do with power-some people just love telling others what to do, to think, etc.
for women, there's not many places you have the kind of freedoms we have here-but there's still steps to take. not sure how many times (but plenty of them!) i've had people say 'you're doing that?' because i'm a woman. gotta love that prejudgement, stereotyping garbage.

Planned Parenthood was formed to kill black babies. Period. They can romanticize it all they want and make that witch Sanger a hero but the fact remains she was a racist and a supporter of eugenics.

No different than a Nazi yet she's a hero? Why? Population control. Don't need generations of successful Americans...we need immigrants that will work for slave labor.

See through the bulls.hit. We're being played by scumbags.

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by Coach Pants

Planned Parenthood was formed to kill black babies. Period. They can romanticize it all they want and make that witch Sanger a hero but the fact remains she was a racist and a supporter of eugenics.

No different than a Nazi yet she's a hero? Why? Population control. Don't need generations of successful Americans...we need immigrants that will work for slave labor.

See through the bulls.hit. We're being played by scumbags.

Many of these attacks against Sanger are based on articles published by the Birth Control Review after she stopped editing it. If one is going to say she was still responsible for the content, one must also be willing to agree that Ron Paul is responsible for the racist things written in his newsletter, which he was in control of and from which he derived profit.

That said, Henry Ford praised Hitler, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, Al Jolson peformed in blackface, blah blah blah ad infinitum. People are all products of their times. In the 1920's, eugenics was cutting-edge science- the DNA research of its day, if you will. It seems ridiculous today, but hey, in the 19th century, doctors actually believed that educating a woman would shrink her reproductive organs. So, progress changes what we understand to be true. And Sanger likewise eventually abandoned eugenics. In 1919, she said:

"Eugenists imply or insist that a woman’s first duty is to the state; we contend that her duty to herself is her first duty to the state. We maintain that a woman possessing an adequate knowledge of her reproductive functions is the best judge of the time and conditions under which her child should be brought into the world. We further maintain that is is her right, to determine whether she shall bear children or not, and how many children she shall bear if she chooses to become a mother . . . Only upon a free, self-determining motherhood can rest any unshakable structure of racial betterment. (Source: The Birth Control Review, February 1919)"

She was a product of her time. And at that time, eugenics was cutting-edge science, and the majority of whites believed science proved they were the superior race. But to say Sanger's interpretation of eugenics is the same as the Nazi's is ridiculous. In fact, her books were some of the first burned by the Nazis- probably because she believed control of women's fertility should reside with the woman herself, and not with the state.

(For that matter, Sanger also opposed abortion, because she believed life began at conception. Wonder how that tidbit sits with the right-wingers who like to scream about her. )