Planned Parenthood and Title X
This week Planned Parenthood withdrew from the Title X program rather than implement the new rule that would forbid recipients of Title X funds from discussing abortion with patients or referring them for abortion care. From the official statement by Alexis McGill Johnson, Acting President and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America:
I want our patients to know: while the Trump administration may have given up on you, Planned Parenthood never will. Our doors are open today, and our doors will be open tomorrow. The Trump administration’s gag rule will reverberate across the country. This reality will hit hardest people struggling to make ends meet — including those people in rural areas and communities of color.
“We believe that the Trump administration is doing this as an attack on reproductive health care and to keep providers like Planned Parenthood from serving our patients. Health care shouldn’t come down to how much you earn, where you live, or who you are. Congress must act now. It’s time for the U.S. Senate to act to pass a spending bill that will reverse the harmful rule and restore access to birth control, STD testing, and other critical services to people with low-incomes. People’s lives depend on it.
But those who are rejoicing that this will now “defund” Planned Parenthood need to tone down their celebrations. Although 34% of PP funding comes from government programs and grants, only a small percentage of that comes from Title X — in 2017, some $50 to $60 million out of $564 million from government programs came from Title X, the rest coming mostly from Medicaid. So far the courts have prevented attempts by states to withhold Medicaid payments from PP, saying that low-income women had the right to choose their healthcare provider. Decisions were based on a rule set during the Obama administration, which of course Trump reversed; this may lead to more cases and may end up in the Supreme Court, but for the present, Medicaid funding is not affected.
And of course, as always, this has nothing to do with funding or not funding abortion. Federal monies are already barred from paying for abortion care. Title X covers contraception, cancer screenings, well-woman exams, STD testing and treatment including for HIV, and similar preventive medical care for women who would not otherwise be able to afford these services that undoubtedly have saved lives.
More than 40% of women receiving Title X coverage get their care at Planned Parenthood. As usual, this attempt to put PP out of business hurts women, not PP, and does nothing that has any impact on abortions. Without access to affordable contraception, there will be, if anything, more abortions. And if we all increase our donations to Planned Parenthood — this would be a good time for a donation if you can afford to make one — we can help mitigate that harm. To set an example, Variety has decided to cancel its annual Emmy Awards party and use the money for a donation to Planned Parenthood instead. (I can’t share the Donations page without sharing my info, but any of the PP links in this section include a link to donate.)
Abortion
If you haven’t seen it, this look at the research on the economic effects of abortion legalization post-Roe from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research is well worth the read. A couple of highlights:
Existing research suggests that greater access to abortion increased women’s future participation in the workforce—the probability of working 40 weeks or more per year increased almost 2 percentage points (from 29 percent) after the legalization of abortion. Workforce and employment effects were particularly strong for Black women, who were 8 percentage points more likely than White women to be working before abortion reform; after reform, labor force participation among Black women increased 6.9 percentage points.
. . .
Educational attainment:
■ Abortion access reduced teen fertility, particularly for Black women who had lower levels of access to contraception. This allowed Black women greater opportunity to pursue further education.
■ Abortion legalization in the 1970s increased Black women’s rates of high school graduation and college attendance.
■ Among White women, abortion access lowered teen fertility but did not improve educational outcome.
. . .
Based on the literature reviewed here, abortion access not only had economic effects for women exposed to reforms, but also for the subsequent generation. As abortion reduced unintended births, cohorts of births were more likely to be planned. This improved educational and economic outcomes, both during childhood and later in life.
Children born to women exposed to abortion reform had lower rates of poverty and receipt of public assistance during childhood, primarily due to a reduction in living with single parents. They were also more likely to graduate from college, and less likely to be single parents or receive public assistance as adults. Increases in high school graduation were only found for Black men, who were among the most disadvantaged groups in terms of graduation.
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An appeals court in California has upheld California’s law making coverage of abortion mandatory for insurance policies sold in the state, saying
Pregnant women have two legal choices in California: to carry the pregnancy to term or to terminate it, typically by abortion, the court said. “An abortion procedure is both a recognized treatment for the medical condition of a patient’s pregnancy,” the court observed, “and a treatment every woman in California has a legal right to choose.”
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As in pre-Roe days, more and more women are traveling to other states like for abortions, as state laws become ever more restrictive; and as before Roe, groups are growing that help women to pay for and manage the logistics of such trips.
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Scientists call on other scientists to speak up about the false scientific claims behind restrictive state abortion laws.
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It seems racial violence is not the only violence to increase under Trump.
One man was charged with threatening to “slaughter and murder” doctors and patients at an abortion clinic in Chicago. Another was arrested in connection with threats against Planned Parenthood and federal agents. A third vandalized a Planned Parenthood office in Pennsylvania, painting a Bible verse in red on a wall.
All this happened in the past month alone. It’s part of what doctors and reproductive rights groups say is a spike in harassment and threats against abortion providers. According to a report by the National Abortion Federation, for example, providers reported 21,252 incidents of online harassment in 2018, compared with 15,773 in 2017.
Other News
Hundreds of women marched on Mexico City protesting sexual violence after two teenage girls were allegedly raped by police officers, one near her home, and one in the museum where she was an intern.
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For Thank a Criminal Day: Pia Klemp, the German ship captain who rescues refugees trying to reach Europe from northern Africa, and who faces up to 20 years in prison from Italy for doing so, was awarded the Grand Vermeil Medal for bravery from the city of Paris for her work — and turned it down. From her statement:
"We do not need medals," Klemp wrote in a public Facebook post. "We do not need authorities deciding about who is a 'hero' and who is 'illegal.' In fact they are in no position to make this call, because we are all equal."
. . .
Madame Hidalgo, you want to award me a medal for my solidarian action in the Mediterranean Sea, because our crews 'work to rescue migrants from difficult conditions on a daily basis'. At the same time your police is stealing blankets from people that you force to live on the streets, while you raid protests and criminalize people that are standing up for rights of migrants and asylum seekers. You want to give me a medal for actions that you fight in your own ramparts. I am sure you won't be surprised that I decline the Medaille Grand Vermeil.
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From UN Women:
Madina Mousa fled the war in Syria with her family in 2013, and now lives in Kawergosk Refugee Camp in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She started volunteering to help other refugees and now works as a Protection Supervisor at the Women’s Empowerment Organization (WEO), local partner organization of UN Women implementing the regional programme, “Strengthening the Resilience of Syrian Women and Girls and Host Communities in Iraq, Jordan and Turkey”, funded by the European Union under the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis (the EU MADAD Fund).
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The Crime of Parenting While Poor, https://newrepublic.com/... :
"Many issues that fall under the broad umbrella of “neglect”—which alone accounts for 73 percent of all allegations of child maltreatment made to ACS—are simply the everyday struggles of low-income families."
-snip-
"Conservative critics, however, have essentially argued—particularly during America’s periodic drives to crack down on welfare—that parents who can’t support their families are, by definition, unfit. "
-snip-
"Even the most generous of programs cannot make up for government policies that force poor children to live in unsafe housing, drink lead-poisoned water, and go without adequate health care and education."
-snip-
“The truth about what’s wrong with poor children,” Guggenheim said, “is they were born in America, in a system that doesn’t care about them.”
But, you know, pro-life.
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Here is a harrowing story of a woman’s journey through the medical web of physical vs. functional neurological disease, with a twist — she’s a well-respected neurologist herself.
Amnesty International Action Items
https://www.amnesty.org/...
Amnesty International has several petitions for women:
• Urgent: Stop harassment of activist Elżbieta Podleśna
• Protect the Amazonian Women and the Amazon
• Free Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh
• Demand sex workers’ protection in the Dominican Republic
• Call on Lebanon to protect migrant domestic workers
• Tell the Lawmakers: Sex without consent is rape
• Protect women fighting hate in Poland
• Demand justice for the killing of Karla and Alondra.
• Speak out for women’s rights defender Azza Soliman
• Demand safe and legal abortion in Argentina
• Demand truth and justice for the murder of Berta Cáceres.
As always, thanks to the WoW crew for their interesting links and discussion. This week’s contributors include TaraTASW, mettle fatigue, elenacarlena, Besame, SandraLLAP, and officebss.