I’m the first to admit it: I do not pay attention to politics. I maintain my ignorance is a direct result of too many holiday dinners doing their very best to turn into sessions of Congress, but honestly I don’t have the energy to keep up with much of what I should. However, I was shocked that the New York Times article “Planned Parenthood Funding Is Caught in Budget Feud” identifies the recent battle over the program’s support as “almost unnoticed.”
I propose that we notice it. The budget cut applies to Title X, a program established in 1970 that provides family planning and related preventive health services. It is the only federal grant program to do so. In 2008, five million women and men were helped at more than 4,500 clinics, including Planned Parenthood ones, across the country. In 2010, Title X received approximately $317,491 million from Congress. In 2011, the amendment to deny that funding from Planned Parenthood passed due to a vote of 240 to 185.
I already confessed my lack of political knowledge, so it should come as no surprise that I legitimately do not understand why the amendment passed. Yes, Planned Parenthood does provide abortions. But it is also responsible for sexual education, breast exams, cancer screenings, vasectomies, pelvic exams, treatment for urinary tract infections, flu vaccines, diabetes screenings…the list goes on. Only three percent of all services are related to abortion.
Planned Parenthood is the leading sexual and reproductive health care provider in the country. Under Title X it is legally required to give priority to clients from low-income families. The fact that so many people try to prevent the 83% of clients who want to avoid getting pregnant from doing so baffles as much as it infuriates me. As a country, we can’t afford to have its budget cut.
Unfortunately, enough people don’t agree. Representative Jackie Speier of California proved to be an exception, however; she gave an impromptu speech denouncing the “vendetta against Planned Parenthood” in response to Representative Chris Smith. She also revealed that she had had an abortion due to an ectopic pregnancy—where the egg attaches to someplace other than the uterus—which had to have been painful to talk about in front of hundreds of people, not to mention on television.
Many other representatives such as Henry Waxman, Sheila Jackson and Kathy Castor also spoke out against the amendment during the three hour long debate. These representatives had different reasons for objecting, but as long as they do so, hopefully those in the Senate will recognize their views in time for the upcoming vote on Friday.
If you want to help stop Planned Parenthood’s budget from being cut, you can sign an open letter to Congress here. And if you need a little extra impetus to do so, here is an excerpt from Jackie Speier’s speech:
“Mr. Chairman, I had really planned to speak about something else, but the gentleman from New Jersey has just put my stomach in knots, because I’m one of those women he spoke about just now. I had a procedure at 17 weeks, pregnant with a child that had moved from the vagina into the cervix, and that procedure that you just talked about was a procedure that I endured. I lost the baby. But for you to stand on this floor and to suggest as you have that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcomed or done cavalierly or done without any thought is preposterous. To think that we are here tonight debating this issue, when the American people if they are listening are scratching their heads and wondering: What does this have to do with me getting a job? What does this have to do with reducing the deficit? And the answer is: Nothing at all.”
Sources:
“Planned Parenthood Funding Is Caught in Budget Feud” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/politics/18parenthood.html?_r=1&scp…
“House Republicans Push Through Budget Amendments” http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/house-republicans-push-through-budget-amendments/?scp=4&sq=planned%20parenthood&st=cse
“House debate on defunding Planned Parenthood stretches on for nearly three hours” http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/02/house-debate-on-defunding-pl…
U.S Department of Health & Human Services Office of Population Affairs http://www.hhs.gov/opa/familyplanning/index.html
Planned Parenthood http://www.plannedparenthood.org
American Pregnancy Association http://www.americanpregnancy.org
Feministing.com http://feministing.com/2011/02/18/representatives-stand-up-for-planned-p…