Hillary Nelson shares a moving tale of living in New York, with “almost no money and no health insurance,” and having a precancerous condition discovered and treated by doctors at Planned Parenthood. Then she confronts the Executive Councilors who refused to renew the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood.
They’re taking a calculated risk that the tens of thousands of under-insured and uninsured poor women who rely on the organization don’t follow politics and that the rest of us can’t figure out that their stupidity will cost us more money in the end, not less.
But come the next election they’ll discover there are a lot of women in their districts like me, who were young once, and careless, and poor, who relied on Planned Parenthood. Who perhaps even had their lives saved by Planned Parenthood.
We’re older now, and wiser. Maybe even a little richer.
Cornerstone Executive Director Kevin Smith organized a press conference and rally yesterday to applaud the Executive Council for cancelling a Planned Parenthood contract that would provide health services for thousands of women. Smith said the Executive Council “correctly read the mood of taxpayers.” All evidence to the contrary.
Approximately two dozen people with Cornerstone walked past approximately twice as many Planned Parenthood supporters and faced them during the press conference.
The audience booed Musgrave, a former member of Congress from Colorado, and one person shouted “liar” after she accused Planned Parenthood of aiding and abetting sex trafficking.
(For the record, the Planned Parenthood sex trafficking allegation has been thoroughly discredited.)
Last year, Planned Parenthood provided low-cost contraceptives to more than 13,000 women in the Granite State. But when New Hampshire’s all-Republican Executive Council canceled the state’s $1.8 million contract with Planned Parenthood, the clinics were forced to stop dispensing the contraceptives.
Councilor Raymond Wieczorek, who voted against the contract, was unfazed and shot back, “I am opposed to providing condoms to someone. If you want to have a party, have a party but don’t ask me to pay for it.” His flippant response earned Wieczorek a nomination from Keith Olbermann for the day’s “Worst Person in the World!”
Today we salute you, Mr. Privileged White Male Executive Council Members (Mr. Privileged WhiteMaleExecutiveCouncil Memmmmbeerrs!). Because of you, 15,000 NH women are attempting to pull themselves out from underneath that bus you so carelessly threw them under (Man, it’s dirty under this busssss). You don’t have vaginas, but that’s not stopping you from making decisions about our bodies. When STD, cancer, and pregnancies rates go sky high, don’t blame us (babies everywheerree!).
And so, Mr. Privileged White Male Executive Council Members, this vid’s for YOU:
“And if dogma trumps pragmatism and neither side budges, Indiana’s most vulnerable citizens could end up paying the price as the collateral damage of a partisan battle.”
— Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the Federal District Court in Indianapolis, on Indiana’s attempt to cut off money for Planned Parenthood clinics.
In praising Gov. Lynch for his veto of parental notification legislation, Planned Parenthood reminds us that it is just part of a two-pronged assault on women’s health by the legislature, restricting abortion by requiring parental notification while simultaneously cutting programs that prevent the need for abortion.
“The Republican leadership in the legislature has made this restrictive proposal a priority while at the same time dramatically reducing funding for teen pregnancy outreach programs and access to birth control. New Hampshire has the lowest teen pregnancy rate in the United States which we believe is evidence that our current policy environment is producing positive outcomes.”
Wednesday, Sen. Kelly Ayotte gave a web interview to Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony List. SBA List is an organization that seeks to eliminate abortion by supporting pro-life politicians.
The interview topic was Planned Parenthood. Given how Planned Parenthood funding has become central to the Congressional budget fight, it’s worth taking a closer look at the interview. And when you check the facts, you find Ayotte’s responses are filled with lies and distortions.
Planned Parenthood has launched a radio ad opposing the legislature’s proposal to defund the organization by personally targeting Speaker Bill O’Brien. In the ad, two Republican women are distressed by O’Brien’s “extreme social agenda.”
“I found out that our Speaker O’Brien is one of the other type of Republicans.”
“You mean the type with an extreme social agenda that wants to get the government in people’s private business?”
“I guess we should find out if our representatives are O’Brien Republicans or New Hampshire Republicans.”
We voted for Republicans who would focus on jobs and the economy, not defunding Planned Parenhood.”
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen today spoke forcefully against cutting off federal funding for Planned Parenthood and Title X aid to community health centers.
“There are thousands of women, and in a lot of cases men in New Hampshire, who get their health care through these clinics who will no longer be able to access them for their care because they will have to reduce their services or they will have to shut their doors,” Shaheen said.
“If they can’t get their care through these community clinics they are going to go to emergency rooms in hospitals that are much more expensive,” she said in a conference call from Washington, D.C.
A cutoff would eventually be paid for by people with insurance, she said, because when hospitals have exhausted their free care they pass on the extra costs to those with health insurance.
“It’s going to have a ripple effect on the communities where the clinics are located, on the businesses where people who get their service work,” Shaheen said. “It’s going to have a ripple effect in many ways.”
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this week on a Continuing Resolution to fund the government through September. The Senate version does not de-fund Planned Parenthood.
Defeated Congressional candidate Jennifer Horn will join national representatives from the Susan B. Anthony List and Live Action to support Rep. Frank Guinta for his vote to defund Planned Parenthood.
The 14-stop “Women Speak Out: Defund Planned Parenthood” media tour will hit Manchester on March 10, 2011 at 1:00 pm. The campaign is supporting lawmakers in swing districts who voted for Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-IN) amendment denying all taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood through September. The tour is a part of a larger $200,000 SBA List campaign including a one-week radio ad thanking Guinta for his vote.
Planned Parenthood is running radio ads targeting Rep. Frank Guinta for his vote in favor of an amendment to the stopgap spending bill that cuts Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. The amendment, proposed by Rep. Mike Pence, passed Friday in a 245-180 vote.
The ad begins with a familiar flushing sound…
Hear that?
It’s the sound of Congressman Frank Guinta wasting your money. He just voted against one of the best investments ever: making sure that women and families can get affordable birth control and preventive health care.
Guinta’s vote doesn’t create a single job, doesn’t reduce the deficit, and doesn’t save you a penny. What his vote WOULD do is bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding to do its vital work — by denying millions of women preventive care, including birth control, annual exams, and lifesaving cancer screenings.
And Guinta’s vote is sure to increase the number of unintended pregnancies and undetected cancers. In the long run, that’s going to cost all of us plenty. Representative Guinta promised to focus on jobs, but instead he’s joined a costly war on women’s health care.
