Defunding Planned Parenthood is NOT what’s important… these are the issues that matter.
Did you know that every year over 2.7 million people use Planned Parenthood for some type of service? (and contrary to what Conservatives will have you think, they are not coming in only for abortions). Planned Parenthood is not only a place where women can have safe abortions, it’s a place where women and men have access to services such as birth control, pap smears, std testing, prenatal services and even adoption help. Why do people hate Planned Parenthood? It exists so people can PLAN their families, plan if they decide to become parents… and in a society where having a family is no walk in the park, where there is no paid family leave, no paid sick leave, childcare and education is expensive… we parents need all the help we can get when it comes to planning our families, especially in low-income and minority communities. An attack on Planned Parenthood is not only an attack on women (men wanting to control and exert their power over women’s bodies) but it is also an attack on the people that use the services, mainly low-income and minority communities.
Republicans like to point out that the they want to protect the unborn and the “fetuses that have no chance to live. But who is protecting families? Are the Republicans worried about families? They say to be supportive of families but are they really? It seems that unborn fetuses really keep them up at night, not families. Don’t you know children are only important when they are in the womb? After they are born, parents are left to fend for themselves on healthcare, food, housing, childcare… Republicans only care about protecting the fetuses, not the children those fetuses may become. Why do fetuses keep them up at night, but not families?
There are 15.5 mil lion children that live in poverty in the United States. Tell me Republicans, why aren’t you appalled at that? Why aren’t you crying out that this needs to be remedied?
There are 15 million kids that are food insecure; that don’t have anything to eat. In this land where there is so much abundance, there are families who do not have anything to eat, or are under-nourished. Why doesn’t this keep you up at night?!
There are 3.5 million people that are homeless.
There are so many parents and young adults who go into debt to pay medical or education bills.
There are so many families where an unplanned pregnancy causes financial strife and can even lead to homelessness and poverty.
There are millions of parents who can’t support their families on minimum wage.
Why are Republicans being selective? Why is the fetus more important and causes so much outrage but homeless children and families don’t?
Perhaps it is because many of the policies that need to be put in place in order to lift families out of poverty (such as a living minimum wage, paid sick leave, paid family leave, access to affordable housing and healthcare) are things Republicans do not support. I guess it’s easier to support fetuses huh?
Why are “the rights of the unborn” more important any than the rights of a full-fledged person? What is a fetus given priority despite its limited personhood (limited because it cannot survive on its own, it needs a women in order to keep growing). Why do you want to protect fetuses yet won’t offer families real solutions to help lift them out of poverty? We need living minimum wage, paid sick leave, paid family leave, access to affordable housing and healthcare. We don’t need white, old men to tell us women what to do with our vaginas, or try to tell us how many kids we should have or not have.
Like Senator Elizabeth Warren, I wonder if Republicans woke up thinking this was 1950, or if they were dropped on their heads. It’s time to stop wasting time trying to repeal “Obamacare” and defunding an organization that provides life-saving reproductive services for women and men. Stop calling yourselves “Family-Friendly” and stop saying you support the sanctity of families. You don’t support families, if you did, families wouldn’t be struggling to pay their bills, put food on their tables and support their kids all while working full-time jobs. Stop being delusional and start talking about how you’re going to help families, not hinder their ability to make decisions about how many children they want to have and how women will take care of their bodies.
Planned Parenthood is not the enemy here. The enemies are members of Congress and other elected officials who think it is OK to dictate what women are and aren’t allowed to do with their bodies. Shame on you Republicans, shame on you.
Absolutely!!!