The 15-month, $1.6 million congressional “investigation” into Planned Parenthood is finally over, with the chilling announcement that Republicans in charge plan now to eviscerate the nonprofit most associated with reproductive rights.
Tennessee’s Rep. Marsha Blackburn and the fellow Republicans on her “Select Panel on Infant Lives” – launched last year in the wake of the bogus “fetal parts” video smear led by California anti-abortion activist David Daleiden – issued their “recommendations” on Wednesday, with no Democratic input and zero proof of wrongdoing. Baseless as the proposals were, House Speaker Paul Ryan swiftly announced that at least one – senselessly stripping Planned Parenthood of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds – will be among the first orders of business.
Blackburn also called for bans on abortion at 20 weeks and federal funding for research using fetal tissue. Never mind that the former is unconstitutional and the latter saves lives.
This crusade against Planned Parenthood in particular – and reproductive rights in general – is misogynistic, archaic and counterproductive. Good people can disagree on the morality of abortion, but women have had the right to choose for more than 40 years and polls show the vast majority of Americans want to keep it that way.
In the name of placating evangelicals in their base and attacking one of Democrats’ favored organizations, congressional Republicans have singled out a health care provider that annually serves 2.5 million sometimes desperate humans. About nine in 10 Planned Parenthood clients come for services that have nothing to do with pregnancy termination. Eight in 10 are on Medicaid; many of the rest have no insurance.
HENRY KOTULA 