The Republican war on woman reached a new low with
House Republicans led by government shutdown ringleader Cruz
threatening to shut down the government unless Planned Parenthood is
defunded.
The prospect of a shutdown increases
each day as Boehner continues to prove as incapable of leading his
caucus as he was the last time Republican extremists engineered a
government shutdown.
In 2013, Cruz led off the rails ideologues
forcing a shutdown because Cruz and his followers don’t believe the
government should pay its bills. This time, they are holding the
government hostage in an effort to destroy women’s access to healthcare.
It’s the war on women all over again – this time in an effort to
destroy the country’s biggest reproductive healthcare provider.
The common element in both cases is we have
ideologues pushing a government shutdown over a policy objective that
will never pass. Even if the House tries to defund Planned Parenthood,
there is zero chance of success. The Senate won’t pass it and President
Obama will veto any budget that attempts to defund it. Still Cruz and
his followers march on pandering to evangelical lunatics and, perhaps, garnering
some free publicity for Cruz’s failing pretender campaign.
Combine Cruz’s lust for publicity to breath air into
his campaign and Boehner’s incompetence as Speaker, and it means
the House doesn’t have enough votes to pass a budget that has funding
for Planned Parenthood in it.
The Orwellian sounding “Freedom Caucus” is another player behind Cruz and his attempt to defund Planned Parenthood’s
reproductive health services by way of threatening a government
shutdown. Led by Jim Jordan (R-OH), The “Freedom Caucus” is also behind
efforts to remove Boehner as Speaker. So the fact that they ignore Boehner and obey Cruz comes as no surprise.
They’re milking a severely edited propaganda video for all its worth. The video was produced by David Daleiden,
a Republican cabal hack, who probably learned his Goebbels level
propaganda techniques from fellow video fraudster and friend, James O’Keefe.
Because of the editing involved, it appeared that Planned Parenthood
was selling “baby parts” for profit – an illegal practice. Facts never
matter when you are waging war on women’s health and using the
increasing prospect of a government shutdown to make it happen.
As noted by the Boston Globe, the unedited version of this video makes crystal clear,
There is nothing illegal about what some Planned Parenthood facilities do: provide fetal organs, donated by consenting patients, to medical researchers, while charging a nominal fee that covers the cost of storage and delivery.
Once again, there is nothing illegal about this.
Planned Parenthood is not selling “baby parts” nor is it making a profit
from the legal practice of providing fetal organs, donated by
consenting patients.
Despite the facts, House Judiciary Chair. Bob
Goodlatte, said he won’t vote for a budget that includes funding for
Planned Parenthood even if it means a government shutdown. During an
interview with The Hill, Goodlatte admitted that he is a “long-time opponent of funding for Planned Parenthood.” In other words the doctored Daleiden video is a ruse that Goodlatte latched on to in the name of defunding the largest provider of reproductive health services.
Planned Parenthood receives government funding under
Title X, a program that provides low income women with access to family
planning services, excluding abortion. The funds it receives under
Medicaid allows payment for abortion subject to Hyde Amendment
restrictions. In other words, Planned Parenthood is already complying
with the same restrictions that apply to any healthcare provider that
receives Medicaid payments.
When you consider that 97% of Planned Parenthood
provided services are cancer screenings, contraception and tests and
treatment of sexually transmitted services, the fact is Republicans are
waging war on reproductive health services for women, especially women
living on low incomes. These are services that save lives and reduce
healthcare costs. Take them away and lives will be lost and healthcare
costs will increase. Cruz and his off the rails ideologues in the House
are willing to shut the government down in the name of holding women’s
health hostage.
Cruz is one of the 3 Republican pretender
candidates on record to support defunding Planned Parenthood. Paul
and Huckabee are the others. Cruz also held “shutdown strategy talks” with Congressional wingnuts a few days ago.
This time, off the rails ideologues are holding the
U.S. government at gunpoint in the name of taking cancer screenings,
birth control and treatment for STD’s away from women. The war on women
continues.
