Democracy Has Prevailed.

April 8, 2011

Government Shutdown Averted; GOP Loses to Planned Parenthood

A shutdown of the Federal Government has been averted. A continuing resolution will be passed tonight (already passed by voice vote; actual vote to likely occur a little after Midnight) to prevent a shutdown and the budget will actually be voted on next week and will contain $39 billion in cuts. The riders -- including the one to defund Planned Parenthood -- will be voted on separately next week so that Republicans can get their public hard-on over denying women health care for their lady bits.

Here's what the overall spending cuts compromise looks like:

(Click to enlarge; original here)

The defunding for Planned Parenthood actually had nothing to do with abortion. Federal funds are already prohibited by law from covering abortions. The funds the GOP wanted to cut were for Title X funding -- a program started by President NIXON -- which:
"...fund a range of preventive health care services free of charge to patients at or below the poverty level. For low- to moderate-income patients, there is a sliding fee scale for access to Title X services, which include breast and pelvic exams, Pap smears and other cancer screenings, HIV testing, pregnancy testing and counseling, and affordable birth control."
And, speaking of Planned Parenthood and abortion, despite claims today that "that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does," here's the actual breakdown of what they do:
Notice, that would be 3%, not 90%.

Here's GOP female House members avoiding saying what they think of Title X:


And, to take the bitter taste out of you mouth from the above video, here's Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards' cover version of the White Stripes "Effect and Cause."*


Rock on, Congresswoman, rock on.


*(h/t to Digby)

1 comment:

Grace said...

Why would any female support the GOP? Seriously, they do not care about women. Heck, they don’t care about anyone except the rich. My daughter called home yesterday to let us know that her best friend will not be returning to school next year. His father lost his job and his mother is working a low wage job, the family has no had health insurance for awhile now. Because the 2011 budget guts Pell Grants my child’s friend (Dean’s list, volunteer, and church goer) will not be able to afford college in the Fall.
So maybe someone can ask Virginia and all of you out there who are still registered Republicans if they supports the Republican war on working poor and working class Americans. I can only hope that they are against the GOP’s war on women.