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Jun 30, 2011
Of all the absurdities hatched by Gov. Scott Walker and his right-wing henchmen, none is more confounding than their elimination of funding for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin clinics.
The GOP has fomented animus toward PP by spreading the lie that it does nothing but perform abortions on the taxpayer dime. In fact, terminating dangerous or unwanted pregnancies represents only about 3 percent of PP’s services in Wisconsin. None of the clinics that provide this service receive government funding.
But the group does provide an array of health services, including prenatal care, cancer screenings and STD services. It also provides birth control counseling to prevent unwanted pregnancies (and thus abortions) and offers preventive care to more than 12,000 uninsured women in small communities.
The Tea Party claims it wants to cut government spending. Wouldn’t preventing STDs, cancer and unwanted pregnancies among women who can’t afford healthcare be a great way to achieve that goal?
You bet! A 2008 Guttmacher Institute Analysis found that PP of Wisconsin helped to prevent more than 11,000 pregnancies that year alone, resulting in about $139 million in medical savings.
So what’s the problem? There’s sex involved.
It seems that right-wing Republicans don’t really want to save money so much as they want to enforce a bizarre religious view that holds sex is evil and women must be either virgins or whores. They want to punish women for having sexual desires by eliminating access to birth control, STD treatment and reproductive choice. They don’t seem to realize that sex is natural and healthy. Here’s a clue: It exists throughout the plant and animal kingdoms, where it is expressed in a diverse multitude of ways. Haven’t they noticed that even the most right-wing moralists – in fact, especially the most right-wing moralists – can’t seem to keep it zipped?
The right’s costly and bizarre assault on women’s health is an example of neuroses being acted out in the public policy arena.
