On Melissa Harris-Perry's Sunday morning show (8/2/15), the panel discussed the topic of conservatives' war on safe abortions. Robert Traynham said, "As the only male at the table, I'm slightly a little uncomfortable talking about this because obviously this is a women's issue." While I can appreciate his discomfort (not only the sole male in the discussion, but he also described himself as 'pro-life'), he was only partially correct.
All those who are even slightly interested in facts know that only about 3% of the nearly 3 million clients of Planned Parenthood each year visit for abortions. Rational people also are aware that women, especially low-income women in medically under-serviced areas, rely on PP for basic health care. Less well-known is that increasing numbers of men visit these clinics. While researching for this, I came across another Daily Kos post that's relevant:
You May Be Surprised By Which Planned Parenthood's Men's Services Are Also At Risk: http://www.dailykos.com/...
But men also losing services is still only part of the travesty from conservatives' war on women's healthcare. The repercussions on the assault on Planned Parenthood are far-reaching and involve more than just health and reproductive choices.
First, medical research:
Fetal tissue has been used in medical research since 1921 in Europe, 1939 in the U.S. to try and treat numerous diseases from diabetes to Parkinson's. Mitch McConnell was among those in Congress who voted to legalize fetal tissue donations after abortions in 1993. The tissue is derived from a number of sources -- "hospitals, nonprofit tissue banks (one of which is funded by the NIH) and in some cases local abortion clinics" ("Fetal Tissue Facts," ASCB.org). While federal law prohibits providers profiting, reasonable compensation to cover acquisition, storage and transfer is permissible. The scam videos which sparked the latest assault on Planned Parenthood show discussions of these allowable, non-profit charges.
Second, the economics of family planning:
Guttmacher Institute:
"Public health experts have long emphasized the benefits to maternal and child health of helping women and couples avoid unintended pregnancy and better time and space the pregnancies they have."
...
"Yet, although the preventive health benefits of unintended pregnancy prevention are clear and persuasive—and, indeed, provided the impetus for the new federal requirement that most private health plans cover contraception without copays or deductibles ... the primary reasons American women give for why they use and value contraception are social and economic. Women know that controlling whether and when to have children has positive benefits for their lives."
...
"... [C]ontraceptive access significantly contributed to young women’s joining the paid labor force and following professional occupations. That trend was tied to advancements in women’s educational credentials and to the recognition by women and their potential employers that women could pursue a career with far less fear of it being interrupted by an unplanned pregnancy. These changes, in turn, contributed to women’s increased earning power and to a reduction in the long-standing gender gap in pay."
...
"These studies also provide evidence that family planning has an impact well beyond education and the workforce. They find that unplanned pregnancy is linked to more conflict and less satisfaction in a relationship, and is associated ultimately with greater odds that a relationship will fail. In addition, there is some evidence that women whose pregnancies are unplanned are more likely to experience physical and sexual abuse. Moreover, women and men who experience an unplanned pregnancy are particularly likely to experience depression, anxiety and a decreased perception of happiness; early childbearing is linked to decreased happiness as well."
-- What Women Already Know: Documenting the Social and Economic Benefits of Family Planning: https://www.guttmacher.org/...
The above is just one of numerous treatises by Guttmacher on the benefits to the health, well-being and economic stability of affordable and accessible contraception. Only the most extreme religionists even begin to try and deny this. Yet the Repubs do just that in their pandering to religionists by supporting the inside-out, Bizarro World version of 'religious liberty' most egregiously epitomized by the Supreme Court's
Hobby Lobby decision. The War on Women has the theocratic stench of a Crusade allied with the fragile, yet over-blown ego of the Manly Male.
Women proved 'Yes We Can' I during WWII, Kinsey showed that sexual enjoyment isn't one-sided, and along came The Pill. With the increased ability of women to control reproduction they were free to challenge the centuries-old idea that it's a Man's World. Puritans' barefoot-and-pregnant dominance and the chauvanists' man-is-the-breadwinner memes went the way of the dinosaurs. Repubs then complicated their own quest to maintain male dominence by introducing voodoo economics and ensuring that women flooded the workforce because families needed the extra income.
Denial of accountability for their fiscal failures combined with the racist attack on 'welfare queens' ensured that Repubs would expand their animosity to the low-income populace. Very little of Repubs' policy decisions make sense to even them without an enemy. Medical clinics serving mostly low-income women and men weave nicely into the idea of the 'takers' who are mooching off a bloated, socialist government ('provide for the general welfare' seems to have been written into conservatives' copy of the Constitution with disappearing ink).
Women with incomes below the poverty level have five times the unintended pregnancies of women at 200% poverty level. Reducing access to affordable birth control helps ensure the number of those welfare moms Repubs can rail against are high. In addition to increased unplanned pregnancies is the risk of low birth weight or defects caused by a lack of pre-natal care and the increased costs associated with extra attention such chikdren need. I continually debate with myself on whether there is a concerted and conscious effort on Repubs' part to ensure the existence of this 'enemy force' or if they are so disconnected from reality that they cannot make the causal connection.
The Catch-22 of the Repubs' favorite welfare 'fix,' the work requirement, should be obvious. Since conservs don't want to cover daycare costs. Without it, even searching for a job is nearly impossible. And so, poverty deepens.
And with poverty comes its companions: hunger, crime, violence ... and more enemies for the Reoubs to rail against.
The costs of defunding Planned Parenthood burden all of society. That makes it much more than just a 'women's issue.'
Additional statistics, courtesy Guttmacher Institute (Publicly Funded Family Planning Services in the United States: http://www.guttmacher.org/... ):
• Although most safety-net health centers focus on serving women, most also offer services to men. Overall, 8% of clients served by safety-net health centers in 2010 were male. Some 63% of clinics provide STI treatment to male partners when female clients test positive, and 57% provide STI services to men on their own. Additionally, half of all centers reported that men receive contraceptive services directly.[1]
• Oral contraceptives, injectables (e.g., Depo Provera) and condoms are provided by more than nine in 10 safety-net health centers; 80% offer emergency contraceptive pills.[1]
• More than half of centers (57%) report that they are unable to stock certain contraceptive methods due to cost.[1]
• More than six in 10 women who obtained care at a publicly funded center that provides contraceptive services in 2006–2010 considered the center their usual source of medical care.[13] For four in 10 women obtaining care at family planning centers that specialize in the provision of contraceptive care, that center is their only source of health care.[2]
• In 2013, publicly funded family planning services helped women to avoid 2 million unintended pregnancies, which would have resulted in about 1 million unintended births and nearly 700,000 abortions.[3]
• All together, the services provided at publicly funded family planning visits in 2010 resulted in a net savings to the federal and state governments of $13.6 billion. The services provided at Title X–supported centers alone accounted for $7.0 billion of that total.[4]
• In other words, in 2010, every $1.00 invested in publicly funded family planning services saved $7.09 in Medicaid and other public expenditures that otherwise would have been needed.[4]
Guttmacher Sources:
1. Frost JJ et al., Variation in Service Delivery Practices Among Clinics Providing Publicly Funded Family Planning Services in 2010, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2012, , accessed May 23, 2012.
2. Frost JJ, Gold RB and Bucek A, Specialized family planning clinics in the United States: Why women choose them and their role in meeting women’s health care needs, Women's Health Issues, 2012, 22(6):e519–e525.
3. Frost JJ, Zolna MR and Frohwirth L, Contraceptive Needs and Services, 2010, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2013, , accessed July 21, 2014.
4. Frost, JJ, et al., Return on investment: A fuller assessment of the benefits and cost savings of the US publicly funded family planning program, The Milbank Quarterly, Published electronically October 14, 2014. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.12080.
One final thought provided by Hrafnkell Haraldsson
As I wrote yesterday, there have always been Christians who are willing to live and let live, but because they’re busy living and letting live, you don’t ever hear from them. You hear from the likes of Williamson and Bachmann, for whom tyranny is a core issue. That is, freedom for them, but no freedom for you and me.
But what is striking is the ISIL-like viciousness of conservatives. We don’t need to go to Syria to fight ISIL, given that we have our own ISIL right here in America, wishing to deprive of us our freedoms first hand. If we are going to combat world terrorism, ought we not fight it first here at home?
-- PoliticusUSA; "Right Wing Columnist Wants to Hang Women Who Have Abortions": http://www.politicususa.com/...