Remember when Republicans cared about jobs, jobs, jobs?
Now that every American has a job, the budget is balanced, and the nation's debt is paid off, House Republicans can once again focus on the
Most Important Issue Ever:
Two Republican members of Congress will hold a press conference Thursday to discuss Americans United for Life’s recent report accusing Planned Parenthood Federation of America of criminal wrongdoing.
Reps. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) and Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) responded to AUL’s recent request to consider a taxpayer-funded investigation of the national reproductive health services and abortion provider, according to an AUL press release issued Wednesday.
AUL CEO and President Charmaine Yoest will be in attendance to the noon press conference along with Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) to discuss implications of the group’s report and the possibility of an investigation.
Just to be clear, this isn't really news. So-called "pro-life" organizations are constantly releasing reports of "wrongdoing" by women's health providers. And those reports are constantly proven to be utter bullshit. Like the report House Republicans are now citing as evidence that they must investigate Planned Parenthood:
Planned Parenthood failed to provide the young woman who sought its advice essential information, including the fact that induced abortion increases the risk of miscarriage by 55 percent in subsequent pregnancies, and that there exists a heightened risk of suicide and psychiatric admissions to women who have had an induced abortion (p.22).
Except that, as the "pro-lifers" well know, the supposed increased risks of abortion have been debunked. Repeatedly. These "risks" are nothing more than propaganda invented by anti-woman extremists who think that trying to scare women out of obtaining a legal medical procedure by lying to them about the nonexistent risks is a perfectly legitimate and acceptable way to promote their "sanctity of life" agenda.
More "evidence" of "criminal wrongdoing" from the report?
[A]bortion represented over 97 percent of PPFA’s pregnancy-related services in 2009 (pg. 2).
The forced birthers just love to cite this "fact" even though it is, in the infamous words of Sen. Jon Kyl, "not intended to be a factual statement."
Of course, given that abortion is a legal medical procedure (for now), even if it were 100 percent of Planned Parenthood's services—which it obviously is not—that's not exactly evidence of "criminal wrongdoing."
Eh, but who cares? When the American Taliban gets its own congressional caucus, technicalities like "legal" and "factual" and the difference between "3 percent" and "97 percent" are mere obstacles to overcome. The point isn't to investigate actual criminal behavior—especially if it doesn't "fit the narrative." The point is to investigate and defund one of the nation's biggest health care providers out of existence. Because that's what it means to keep the government out of people's private lives—in Republicanese, anyway.