My argument against ignorance

"an argument in support of planned parenthood is not an argument for abortion but an argument against ignorance"
-Phyllis Grant, Dallas Voice

I recently read this quote in an article in the Dallas Voice and the autor sums up my feelings perfectly. For the past few months I've watched my primary source of healthcare be attacked and taken away from thousands of men, women, and children like myself. I've even been personally attacked by my own family for my support of planned parenthood. While I try to use facts and research when arguing for funding for PPH, I'm tired of the lies and insults hurled at me in replace of good ol' fashion debate. My fatherinlaw recently told me the "women wouldn't need planned parenthood if they kept their legs shut""play with fire and they get burned" This is the kind of prehistoric, barbaric thinking that's behind this recent Ttack on women's rights. I usually hear this or some version of it from older gentlemen. They never stop to think how idiodic and sexist that sounds. I never hear them say the just as true argument "Well if men would just keep their dicks in their pants..." The irrational arguments aren't limited to laymen like my fatherinlaw. Legislaters, entrusted by the voters, have taken to just making things up to support their beliefs. On April 8 Arizona republican Jon Kyle declared on the senate floor of the senate that abortions comprised "well over 90% of what planned parenthood does." In reality, abortions are only 3% of what they do. Kyle later asserted that "he did not intend for that to be a factual statment." And what do facts matter when the public trusts you? On April 20 Texas senator John Cornyn told Emily Ramshaw of the Texas Tribune that "he's been told 98% of the services Planned Parenthood offers is abortion related" Perhaps he should have done a little fact checking and talked to the Planned Parenthood in his own state. In 2010 PPH of north Texas provided 6,000 abortions, 43,000 pap smears and many more thousands of life saving lowcost cancer screenings. According to they're website they also offer birth control, body image counsaling, self-esteem education, counsaling for victims of rape and incest, health relationship education, cholestoral screening, diabetes screening, physical exams, flu-vaccines, help with quoting smoking, mens health exams, erectile dysfuntion education and treatment( ;) they got stuff for you older gentlemen)jock itch exams, infertility screening, testing for sexually transmitted deseases, family planning education, abstinance education, and my personal favorite bags and bags of condoms to prevent the abortions!

Ok seriously, let's clear up some othis ignorance. First of all there is indeed an attack womens health, as well as the right to choose what we do with our own bodies. In fact 56% of state bills being considered regarding reproductive health seeks to restrict access to abortion. Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennisee, and Texas have all passed bans on abortions past 20wks, many neglected to include health exceptions. Alabama and Indiana have pathed the way on banning insurance companies from covering abortions, those that do will not be allowed to participate in the new healthcare exchanges, or drop the coverage and force women to pay the full cost(which can be 10,000) outta pocket dispite risks to health. This is similar to a federal bil puposed by rep. Chris Smith(R-NJ). The Smith Bill(HR3) will alter the tax code so that individuals and small business owners will no longer recieve the tax credits garunteed by recent healthcare recorem if they buy a policy that covers abortions. This is unfair to the average citizen. It punishes small businesses that are trying to do the righ thing and provide for their employees with good healthcare. Many will be unexpectedly hit by this because insurance companies rarely just come out and say "we coer abortion" Its often covered under things like "reproductive health" Ultimatly many businesses will unknowingly loose their deductions and pay higher taxes just for trying to provide for their employees. Many states are going eve further to reduce abortions, South Dakota requires women to go thru "crisis counsaling" at an anti-abortion pregnancy crisis center before an abortion to "assure that the woman is not being coerced into having an abortion". Ohio has banned all abortions at the first sign of a heartbeat. Florida has enacted a 72hr waiting period for those needing abortions, putting the health of the women second to their religous agenda.

My own state of Texas has jumped ass first onto the "women can't make their own choices" bandwagon. Representative John Zerwas(R) helped get an amendment added onto a medicaide bill that says hospitals and clinics that provide "abortion related" services will face a funding freeze on public healthcare funds. $40 million is slated to be cut from this program tha provides contraceptions and health screenings for low-income women. Rep. Zerwas admits the terms used in this bill are "problamatic", "broad", and left "open to interpetation". Since Planned Parenthood is already banned from this funding they will not be affected. The victims will be the patients of lowcost clinics that exclusivly treat women. Many that only provide the morning after pill(and no real abortions) could be targeted by this unthoughtout amendment. Far worse is Rick Perry's pet project, the sonogram bill. For some reason Perry declared it an emergancy at the begining of the session. It requires that women have a sonogram 24hrs prior to the abortion, dispite risks to the womens health. It also requires the doctor to describe what's on the screen. While it requires vistims of rape and incest or women with health defects to go thru this it says they do not have to listen to the description, However I'm not sure how they will "not listen" while they are trapped in the same room as the doctor and their uterus. Now I've argued that this is government sanctioned rape and been told (by my oh so smart dadinlaw) that I don't know what a sonogram is and perhaps I should ask someone. Well, I have had 2 kids, 3 pregnancies and 5 sonograms. Some were the standard jelly on the belly kind. However, for sonograms done early in the pregnancy(the only time abortions are allowed) and on obese women must be done by vaginal probe. They call it Transvaginal sonography. This is the biggest piece of information left out of most reports about this bill. I've read the same simple description in many articles on the subject, "a sonogram is an imaging technique using high frequency soundwaves to produce images of a developing baby in a womens uterus" How quaint! While accurate it leaves out the reality of what women really have to go thru during these sonograms. Here's the reality. They take you into some dark, cold room. They then have you remove your pants and underwear then lay you down on your back on a table. They then spread your legs apart and strap your feet into stirups about a foot above the edge of the table. This is scary enough for any women, let alone a rape victim. Your private parts are exposed and leaves you feeling so vunerable! Then they pull out a large, grey, plastics vaginal probe. They throw one some cold jelly the commence to shove it up the vagina towards the uterus. After some uncomfertable manuvering they have a picture. Ok, I know some men that would kill anyone who tried this on them. But for women republicans have decided this is what we deserve. It's awful! It hurts cause it's unwanted and degrading cause it's government ordered. And even tramatizing for those who've already been violated in the past. This is what happens for those who can afford it. However, many will not. According to The Austin Statesman 25% of Texas women live with out insurance. Many more are underinsured. In Dallas a sonogram can cost $300. Since the goal is to cut women from at assistance, that will have to be paid on top of the $10,000 an abortion can cost if there's complications. So women are left with the choice of having a life-saving procedure or bankruptcy. Thanks Rick Perry! Way to protect the rights of the women of your state!

I see a scary future for the women of this country. As it is imprrperly done abortions result in 70,000 deaths and 5 million injuries a year. After this latest round of legislative blitz I fear it's gonna get worse. In 1996 when South African legalized abortions the World Health Organization cited that abortion related deaths dropped by 90%. The opposite is happening in our country and I don't see anyone talking about the consequances of removing funding for all these clinics and limiting abortions. First think about the well-bein of children already in this world. Former first lady Laura Bush recognizes there's a problem. On April 7 she joined the Texas attorney general to call for new volunteers for the Texas Vourt Appointed Special Advocates(CASA). It's and urgent plea because Texas currently has 42,000 children in it's foster care system. Those 42,000 kids were all unwanted at birth or been abussed and abandoned since. As I said last year PPH performed 6,000 abortions. The system is broke enough without adding another 6,000(or more) kids a year to the Texan foster care system. The what about the men, women, and children that currently depends on clinics like planned parenthood? While voluteering at the PPH office in Fort Worth I learned that the North Texas chapter helped 87,000 different people in 2010. The coordinated that told me that fears they won't be able to help nearly as many in the coming years. So I ask those that cheer all these cuts and bans to think about the unwanted children and the thousands tha will be turned away from the clinics that previously saved their lives.... Where will they all go?