If you are like any other person who tried to read the GOP House bill to replace Obamacare yesterday (here, if you care to try), and went cross-eyed, then you are not alone. The bill is so full of bureaucracy-ese that no normal person will be able to get much out of it without having experience reading these crazy things. (And I say that as someone well-versed in reading and comprehending health insurance plans. Today’s bills are not written for their brevity or clarity.)
So, it should come as little surprise that there’s only one really big good thing in the bill, and several bad things in it. The good thing is that the American Health Care Act (AHCA) would strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding. As can be imagined, Planned Parenthood flipped out – because they were apparently told that they could keep the federal funding, provided they stopped providing abortions. That went over as well as you’d think.
Planned Parenthood is proud to provide abortion—a necessary service that’s as vital to our mission as birth control or cancer screenings. https://t.co/TWGOcVjBJ4
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) March 6, 2017
We won't back down in the face of threats or intimidation, or turn our backs on the patients who count on us. Not today, tomorrow, not ever.
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) March 6, 2017
To be clear, federal funds already DO NOT pay for abortions, an unfair law that has existed for over 40 years. #IStandWithPP
— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) March 6, 2017
The claim that federal money doesn’t pay for abortions at Planned Parenthood is a distinction without a difference. They receive federal money, it goes into the same bank account that gets drawn on to pay for abortion services. Money, by its nature, is fungible.
Of course, this exposes the lie – again – that only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services involve abortion.
Defunding Planned Parenthood – which has proved that they only worship two things, death and money – is a very good thing. Unfortunately, the rest of the AHCA does not make up for it.
Recent Comments