Texas and Rick Perry has officially declared a War on Women

BigLouie's Avatar
In a year defined by the war on Planned Parenthood, Texas set the example in attacks against the women’s health organization. Not only did the state drastically reduce the state’s family planning funding from $111 million to just $37 million, but Republican lawmakers constructed a “tiered priority system” that ensured Planned Parenthood clinics would be the last to receive any of the remaining Title X federal funding. But Texas clinics can receive funding via another route: the state Women’s Health Program (WHP). Created in 2007, the Medicaid-funded program “provides family planning and primary care to low-income, uninsured women, and it served nearly 125,000 people in 2010 alone.”

So this year, GOP lawmakers decided to insert language into a new Medicaid measure that bans any family planning clinic that is even “affiliated” with an abortion provider from receiving WHP funds. Even though Planned Parenthood “corporately separated its abortion services from its family planning services in 2005,” Republicans wanted the fact that these (strictly family planning) clinics are “affiliated” with organization to disqualify them and asked the Department of Health and Human Services to let the state exclude the clinics accordingly.

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services delivered it’s answer: No, as doing so “would violate the Social Security Act” which guarantees that a Medicaid patient can obtain health services from any qualified agency. But instead of accepting the decision, health advocates say Republicans may cancel the WHP program entirely out of spite, leaving at least 130,000 low-income Texas women without services:
But Fran Hagerty, chief executive of the Women’s Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, characterized the federal decision — which extends the program for three months while state officials decide whether to back down from their request — as “the ugliest possible scenario.” She fears the state will opt to end the Women’s Health Program rather than allow Planned Parenthood to continue to be part of it, and that 130,000 low-income women may end up losing out on cancer screenings and birth control.[...]

On Tuesday, state health officials said they would consult with Attorney General Greg Abbott to determine how to proceed. But Gov. Rick Perry doesn’t appear to be in a compromising mood. In a statement from the campaign trail, he said Texas is “committed to protecting life in Texas, and state law prohibits giving state dollars to abortion providers and affiliates — a fact the Obama Administration ignores.”

If state officials decide to forgo the Women’s Health Program in protest, Hagerty said major hospitals like the University of Texas Medical Branch and Parkland in Dallas would be able to maintain some semblance of family planning services, “but nothing like what we have now.” If the program does not extend past March, Hagerty said, community clinics would have to dramatically reduce services, lay off employees or shut down completely.
The program was created as a five year program and is set to expire on December 31. The HHS decision extends WHP for three more months, but Republicans are not accepting HHS’s ruling on the matter. The Texas Humans and Health Services Commission, which requested the waiver, said HHS’s decision is “inconsistent with federal law that gives states the authority to establish qualifications for Medicaid providers.”

State Sen. Robert Deuell (R) said it’s Planned Parenthood’s fault for supporting a constitutionally-protected right. “The problem could be solved tomorrow if Planned Parenthood just renounces abortions and just does family planning and comprehensive care, which they’re capable of,” he said. “Then we could provide a lot of family planning and there wouldn’t be abortions and this problem would go away.”

As the Dallas Observer’s Anna Merlen notes, the program has “served 235,000 women so far and saved the state more than $37.6 million during its first two years by helping women avoid otherwise costly unplanned pregnancies.” Currently, 28 percent of Texas women are uninsured, and without these clinics to provide necessary health care, the health care access problem for women is only going to get worse.
CuteOldGuy's Avatar
Being anti-abortion is not the same as anti-women. 40 - 50% of the women in America are also anti-abortion. I support a woman's right to choose, but I don't support your right to mischaracterize.
joe bloe's Avatar
Being anti-abortion is not the same as anti-women. 40 - 50% of the women in America are also anti-abortion. I support a woman's right to choose, but I don't support your right to mischaracterize. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
Half of the babies murdered in the womb are female. If you don't kill them they will grow up to be women.

Being prolife is hardly a war on women.
WTF's Avatar
  • WTF
  • 12-23-2011, 02:50 PM
Half of the babies murdered in the womb are female. If you don't kill them they will grow up to be women.

Being prolife is hardly a war on women. Originally Posted by joe bloe
And jacking off is half of life with your logic....so wacking off is killing half a woman

You fuc'ers are aganist choice.

Half you want to outlaw the pill.

We did not abort near enough is my position....just from reading all the dumb shit in this forum that is written!
CuteOldGuy's Avatar
Another thoughtful, well-reasoned reply from WTF. Thanks for sharing!
pyramider's Avatar
Fuck RICK PERRY!!

Less than 3% of Planned Parenthood care goes for abortions. Maybe if Mr. Perry blow his load out the window onto the roses Rick Perry would not be such a dumbass.
JD Barleycorn's Avatar
Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the country bar none. If PP just separated their services between abortion and family planning then there would be no problem with funding now, would there. You have to ask yourself, if you're honest, why don't they make that move?

A tiny, little foot note; a higher percentage of children aborted are black than represented by the general population. That indicates the racist roots of PP which is just what it's founder Margaret Sanger preached over a hundred years ago. Reduction of the population of the underclasses though attrition. So why don't you just grab yourself a sheet and torch. You'd fit right in.

I will look up your little "fact" about the 3% but there is how much is outlaid. We're talking about income which is something completely different. I think you knew that.
WTF's Avatar
  • WTF
  • 12-23-2011, 09:40 PM
Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the country bar none. If PP family pjust separated their services between abortion and lanning then there would be no problem with funding now, would there. You have to ask yourself, if you're honest, why don't they make that move?

. Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn
So this year, GOP lawmakers decided to insert language into a new Medicaid measure that bans any family planning clinic that is even “affiliated” with an abortion provider from receiving WHP funds. Even though Planned Parenthood “corporately separated its abortion services from its family planning services in 2005,” . Originally Posted by BigLouie
It sounds like exactly wtf they did.

Look, I really think private money should fund abortion. I understand how some of you do not want to fund with tax dollars something you are morally opposed to. But then some folks should not have to fund wars...something they are morally opposed to. My guess is way more money comes out of the pockets of people opposed to wars , for wars than comes outta the pockets of people opposed to abortions that go to abortions.


A tiny, little foot note; a higher percentage of children aborted are black than represented by the general population. That indicates the racist roots of PP which is just what it's founder Margaret Sanger preached over a hundred years ago. Reduction of the population of the underclasses though attrition. So why don't you just grab yourself a sheet and torch. You'd fit right in.

. Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn
Why don't we help people that can not afford to have children and who do not want children....not have children. So what if some ladies decide to abort? That is called choice. If you and your SO decide not to fine. Nobody is making anybody have an abortion, though I would give serious thought to it. Fucking nation is full of idiots that should have been aborted long ago!
CuteOldGuy's Avatar
As long as government makes it so a person can make money by having children, people will have children. If there was no financial incentive to have children, people would have fewer children. Sounds cruel, but that's the way it is.You can pontificate but I know more than several women who make a pretty good living having children. And as much as the government says the funds are to help the children, more often than not, the funds don't help the children. The kids live in squalor, while the parents party.
Munchmasterman's Avatar
Being anti-abortion is not the same as anti-women. 40 - 50% of the women in America are also anti-abortion. I support a woman's right to choose, but I don't support your right to mischaracterize. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
I have seen numbers showing up to 60% of women in America are anti-abortion while @70% are pro-choice. You don't have to get abortions yourself to support the right of others to choose.

Half of the babies murdered in the womb are female. If you don't kill them they will grow up to be women.

Being prolife is hardly a war on women. Originally Posted by joe bloe
Where are stats on murder victims still in the womb found? They are listed by sex?

Calling green red will never make it so.
Calling legal abortion murder will never make it so.
No matter what you say or how ever many times you say it.

Fuck RICK PERRY!!

Less than 3% of Planned Parenthood care goes for abortions. Maybe if Mr. Perry blow his load out the window onto the roses Rick Perry would not be such a dumbass.
Originally Posted by pyramider
Less than 3% of the total services performed by PP are abortions.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/apr/08/jon-kyl/jon-kyl-says-abortion-services-are-well-over-90-pe/

Contraception (including reversible contraception, emergency contraception, vasectomies and tubal sterilizations): 4,009,549 services

Sexually transmitted infections testing and treatment: 3,955,916 services

Cancer screening and prevention: 1,830,811 services

Other women’s health services (including pregnancy tests and prenatal care): 1,178,369 services

Abortions: 332,278 procedures

Miscellaneous (including primary care and adoption referrals): 76,977

Total services: 11,383,900

Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the country bar none. If PP just separated their services between abortion and family planning then there would be no problem with funding now, would there. You have to ask yourself, if you're honest, why don't they make that move? Are you honest? Then admit that since money is fungible, there is no way to separate abortion services from family planning. Unless of course PP ceases to perform abortions. Nice try.

A tiny, little foot note; a higher percentage of children aborted are black than represented by the general population. That indicates the racist roots of PP which is just what it's founder Margaret Sanger preached over a hundred years ago. Reduction of the population of the underclasses though attrition. So why don't you just grab yourself a sheet and torch. You'd fit right in.
Well parroted. Do you know what links are? They look like this.

http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2011/apr/08/herman-cain/cain-claims-planned-parenthood-founded-planned-gen/

This presidential election season, Georgia’s homegrown prospect Herman Cain is talking about race.

Cain, a black, conservative Republican, recently said the media is "scared that a real black man may run against Barack Obama."

And there’s this one about pro-abortion rights group Planned Parenthood:

"When Margaret Sanger - check my history - started Planned Parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world," Cain said during a talk in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative group.

"It's planned genocide," Cain added. He wants the U.S. Congress to yank funding for Planned Parenthood, which receives about $75 million a year to provide non-abortion health services.

Was Planned Parenthood founded to help kill unborn black babies?

Cain asked his audience to check his history. So, we did.

First, a disclaimer. Cain, who has launched a presidential exploratory committee, was a talk show host on AM 750 and now 95.5 FM WSB, which, like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is part of Cox Media Group.

Cain has more political heft than your average talking head. The former CEO of Godfather Pizza beat a six-term U.S. congressman to finish second in Georgia’s 2004 U.S. Senate Republican primary. The Morehouse grad has eight honorary doctorate degrees and has authored four books, and he serves on several corporate boards.

Now some history. Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger is credited with making birth control legal and widely available.

Born 1879, Sanger, who was white, blamed her mother’s death on her frequent pregnancies. At the time, speaking about birth control could lead to arrest. She thought that if women could legally control the number of children they bore, their health and economic conditions would improve.

We consulted with scholarship, Cain’s camp, anti-abortion groups, Sanger’s biographer, and multiple experts on Cain’s claim.

The supposed evidence that Sanger supported black genocide is a loose collection of her most objectionable statements, her ties to the disgraced eugenics movement, and her work on what was called the Negro Project. That effort, started in 1939, brought birth control services (but not abortion) to black communities in the South.

These facts don’t come close to supporting Cain’s claim.

Eugenics was once a wildly popular theory that the human race can be improved through better breeding and genetics. It drew together backers as diverse as President Theodore Roosevelt and black intellectual W.E.B. DuBois.

At its best, the U.S. movement pushed for better prenatal care. At its worst, it enabled forced sterilization laws and let claims that blacks and immigrants were inferior to masquerade as science.

Sanger welcomed some of the movement’s more notorious leaders onto the board of a predecessor to Planned Parenthood. She also endorsed paying pensions to women of low intelligence who agreed to be sterilized.

But we found no evidence that Sanger advocated - privately or publicly - for anything even resembling the "genocide" of blacks, or that she thought blacks are genetically inferior.

Every academic PolitiFact Georgia consulted said that Cain’s claim is wrong.

"I have never run into any serious academic reference of Sanger or others wanting to ‘kill black babies,’" Indiana University professor Ruth Engs, a eugenics movement expert, told PolitiFact Georgia in an e-mail.

What’s worse, Cain got his facts mixed up.

Sanger’s first birth control clinic opened in 1916 in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., which was mostly Irish and Jewish.

When she did open a Harlem clinic in the early 1930s, about half of its patients were white. Members of the black establishment, including DuBois and black newspaper the Amsterdam News, supported it. This was hardly the pro-genocide camp.

None of these centers performed abortions.

Those who think Sanger wanted black genocide cite the Negro Project. But even their strongest evidence, a passage from a letter she wrote advocating that organizers recruit black ministers for the project, does not come close to proving a genocidal plot.

Sanger wrote that "We don’t want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs."

But her correspondence shows this sentence advocates for black doctors and ministers to play leadership roles in the Negro Project to avoid misunderstandings. Lynchings and Jim Crow laws gave blacks good reason to be wary of attempts to limit the number of children they bore. In Harlem, she hired a black doctor and social worker to quell those fears.

The facts of the Negro Project suggest nothing more genocidal than a public health project. Black leaders DuBois and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and the pastor of the influential black Abyssinian Baptist Church were members of its advisory council. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt was supportive.

For Sanger to launch a genocidal plot behind their backs and leave no true evidence in her numerous writings would require powers just shy of witchcraft.

Really, calling the Negro Project a genocidal plot defies common sense. Why would Sanger try to destroy a race of people by giving them access to the very thing she thought could make life better?

Planned Parenthood’s early objective was not to "help kill black babies before they came into the world."

Sanger failed to rise above the ethnic and racial paternalism of her time, but that’s a far cry from being genocidal.

Cain’s claim is a ridiculous, cynical play of the race card. We rate it Pants on Fire

I will look up your little "fact" about (what a condescending asshole you are) the 3% but there is how much is outlaid. We're talking about income which is something completely different. I think you knew that. Originally Posted by JD Barleycorn
PP has revenues of @ $1 billion a year. Abortions generate @$137 million in revenue a year. So how is federal money spent on abortions?

http://www.politifact.com/florida/st...e-37-percent-/

Republican attacks on Planned Parenthood have filtered down from Washington to Tallahassee, where a GOP state legislator is accusing the not-for-profit group of operating a business plan that relies on abortions.

State Rep. Ronald Renuart, an osteopathic physician from Ponte Vedra Beach, says Planned Parenthood opposes several anti-abortion measures being considered by the Florida Legislature because Planned Parenthood needs to perform abortions in order to stay in business. During an April 20, 2011, meeting of the Health and Human Services Committee, Renuart let Stephanie Kunkel, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, have it.

"In 2008, Planned Parenthood, they put out a report, and it showed that they did 305,000 abortions and the average cost was $450," Renuart said (about 47 minutes into this video). "Their total income for Planned Parenthood alone was $374 million, of that $137 million was actually for abortions. So that's almost 37 percent of the total income from Planned Parenthood is from abortions. And to me, it sounds like they don't want to lose business."

Kunkel, standing at a lectern where audience members can address the committee, later said Renuart was mistaken. "Mr. Renuart, 97 percent of the services that Planned Parenthood provides currently in Florida is prevention and education," she said.

But Renuart stood his ground.

"What I was quoting was a 2008 Planned Parenthood report," Renuart said. "That comes from Planned Parenthood mobile on my Blackberry here. Now are you claiming that, nationally, your organization is misrepresenting statistics and sending out false reports?"

We wanted to check out Renuart's bottom line -- that almost 37 percent of the total income from Planned Parenthood comes from abortions.

To set the stage, though, we need to explain the difference between what Renuart and Kunkel were talking about. Because they are not the same thing. Kunkel was referencing the services that Planned Parenthood provides, and she's right that abortions make up only 3 percent of the total number of procedures or services the group provides. (That's the figure that got Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl in trouble when he claimed -- incorrectly -- that over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is abortions).

But Renuart is talking about revenue, not the number of services or procedures performed by Planned Parenthood.

And because different services or procedures cost different amounts, it's easily possible that abortions could generate more than 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's revenues. Therefore, it's possible that both claims could be correct.

We contacted Renuart's office to see where he got his information but did not hear back. After some research, however, we are fairly certain we tracked down Renuart's sources.

Planned Parenthood releases an annual report each year detailing its activities. The 2008 report is online, and several of the numbers Renuart cited match the report.

In its 2007-08 report, Planned Parenthood said it performed 305,310 abortions in 2007 and that its health center reported total revenues of $374.7 million. Those numbers line up with what Renuart said.

But Renuart's other numbers -- that the average cost of an abortion is $450 and that abortions generated $137 million -- are not in the report.

Those figures came from pro-life bloggers, who have been making a claim similar to Renuart's for more than a year.

We found the information from a blog called Live Action.

The blog said the average cost of an abortion is $450 "based on what Planned Parenthood across the country has told Live Action staff. Although it is slightly higher or lower depending on what part of the country it is." Planned Parenthood's web site offers a range of costs for abortions -- which could include the procedure or the taking of a pill. The procedure costs about $350–$950 in the first trimester, Planned Parenthood says. The cost for what Planned Parenthood calls a "medication abortion" ranges from $350 to $650.

So using $450 is reasonable.

From there, Live Action does simple math.

First, Live Action multiplies the number of abortions (305,310) by what it says is the average cost of an abortion ($450) to reach a figure for the total revenue generated by abortions ($137.4 million).

Then they take the total revenue generated by abortions ($137.4 million) and divide it by the total revenue generated by the health center ($374.7 million), and conclude that 36.7 percent of Planned Parenthood's health center revenue comes from abortion.

So Renuart's right?

Not really.

What blogs like Live Action specify, and Renuart doesn't, is that they are talking only about health center revenue. That makes up only about 36 percent of all revenue for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood had $1.04 billion in total revenues in 2007-08, according to the group's annual report. Other revenue came from government grants ($350 million), private contributions ($250 million) and other sources ($69 million).

So abortion procedures could generate 37 percent of Planned Parenthood's health center revenue -- but mind you, that's an estimate created by pro-life groups because the organization doesn't release that figure. If true, that's still only 13 percent of the total revenue generated by Planned Parenthood.

Renuart didn't make that distinction in his comments during the House committee meeting. He presented his figures and claimed that "almost 37 percent of the total income from Planned Parenthood is from abortions."

Renuart should have been more cautious with his words. We rate this statement False.

Munchmasterman's Avatar
As long as government makes it so a person can make money by having children, people will have children. If there was no financial incentive to have children, people would have fewer children. Sounds cruel, but that's the way it is.You can pontificate but I know more than several women who make a pretty good living having children. And as much as the government says the funds are to help the children, more often than not, the funds don't help the children. The kids live in squalor, while the parents party. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
So you know 12 of them? Or did you reveiw some of them more than once?

Can you provide an expenses vs. revenue sheet to back up your claim?
And of course by far the biggest hole in your logic, what do they live on after the last kid is out of the house, when they have no job skill or retirement funds, when they don't even have what you have deemed so far as a body fit only for generating revenue at the expense of the taxpayers?

You can't believe how I thank God you are full of shit and that the version of America you carry in your head is only that. In your fucking head.
Are there some women who do what you say?
I'm sure there are some.

You know more than several?

How many of the kids are yours?
I B Hankering's Avatar
Then admit that since money is fungible, there is no way to separate abortion services from family planning. Unless of course PP ceases to perform abortions. Originally Posted by Munchmasterman
Exactly!!!!
CuteOldGuy's Avatar
In the Spirit of the Holidays, and with all due respect, Munch, Fuck you. I expected some morons would take your position. You just won't let reality affect what you think. Too bad.

Yeah, people on welfare keep good books with balance sheets and P&Ls. I'm glad you know more about the people I know than I do. Moron.

JD Barleycorn's Avatar
Margaret Sanger did not specifically target blacks. As I said, she targeted undesirables which included in 1922 blacks, jews, irish, catholics, polish, asians, etc. Her plan was to coopt the clergy to encourage abortions as a right and a way to improve the lives of the women who practiced that choice. Go find a copy of "The Pivot of Civilization" printed in 1922. It is a bitch to read but those are her words.

It was the attitude that some people were morons because they didn't agree with you was the basis of the eugenics campaign waged in this country in the 1920s and 30s. What later became IQ tests were given to men being admitted into the army for World War I. Based on this the researchers decided that nearly 30% of Americans should be sterilized to improve the race. This was to be done over 25 years and then a new round of testing would begin. Read about the case of Buck v Bell in Virginia. It is acknowledged that 55,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized in this country. My own mother had a distant cousin who was sterilized at the age of 14 at the Missouri State Mental hospital # 2 in St. Joseph.

Anyone who would like to see mass sterlizations must be following the German model of the 1930s.
waverunner234's Avatar
Whats all the worry and the endless time-consuming posts about?
Perry has NO CHANCE to become president and NO CHANCE he will be re-elected in Texas.
May he die in peace, the sooner the better.