You and what army?
Democrats are hitting back hard against the growing threat that Romney poses to women’s health:
I get it, Mitt. You’re pandering to the wingnuts who think that Planned Parenthood is out there aborting babies eight days a week. You’re licking the boots of the wingnuts who believe that 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is abortion services. After all, Senator Kyl said it on the floor of Congress, so it must be true. (Of course he later qualified his lie by saying it wasn’t intended to be a factual statement. Funny, that — somehow, almost everything that erupts from the face-holes of Republicans are not intended to be factual statements.) And let’s not forget that in Wingnutopia, Planned Parenthood is erecting abortionplexes nationwide so that women can pop in for a quick mani/pedi and an abortion.
See, Mitt doesn’t understand that those of us who are not impervious facts; those who live in a reality-based world and do not base fact on “what they believe in their heart,” understand the Planned Parenthood is the largest healthcare provider for women. One in five women have visited Planned Parenthood at some point in their life, and 99% of women have used birth control at some point in their life.
But Mitt is so desperate to become president that he will say and do anything all the while ignoring the growing coalition of women who are fed up with the Republicans’ attempts to set our vaginae back to 1950 in order to shovel more and more money to the 1 percent.
As Cecile Richards told reporters this afternoon***:
“I was really stunned to read that Mitt Romney has now said he wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood, because really what that means is he wants to get rid of preventative health care for 3 million folks every year. It shows an extraordinary lack of understanding of family planning and the budget to say one of the ways he’s going save money in this country is by ending birth control and family planning. The most conservative economist will tell you that family planning saves money. It saves taxpayers money. It’s ludicrous to think that Mitt Romney, who is running for president of the United States, thinks we’re going to balance the budget by ending birth control access in this country.”
Cecile Richards noted that disregard for women’s health has been a growing theme of Romney’s campaign, and pointed out that Romney has stated that he wants to do away with the national family planning program (Title X), a program Richards ironically notes was signed into law by Richard Nixon. (Title X serves 5 million women each year.)
Richards further noted that Romney has also come out in opposition to expanding access to birth control services (he supports the Blunt Amendment), and has come out in support of a national Personhood Amendment, legislation that is so extreme that even Mississippians voted “hell no” back in October. (asiangrrlMN wrote about that here.)
As is his nature, Romney is flip-flopping like a fish out of water in an attempt to court the most wingnutty voters, hoping that these low-brain-activity voters will never find out that in 2002, Romney actual sought Planned Parenthood’s endorsement.
Just as he bashes “Obamacare” with more fervor than any of the other candidates (in order to distract from the fact that he was for the individual mandate before he was against it), Romney is bashing Planned Parenthood — and, by extension, all women — to repent for his former support of women and reproductive freedom, and to wash away the stain of his prior pro-choice, pro-Roe viewpoints.
The Right and the MSM will help Romney spin his “get rid of Planned Parenthood” comments. They’ll claiming that of course he didn’t mean he wanted to “get rid of” Planned Parenthood. After all, the most he could do is defund Planned Parenthood, not disband it. Ninja, please. That is a distinction without a difference. Defunding Planned Parenthood combined with axing Title X would have severe repercussions for the women who frequent health care centers like Planned Parenthood, 60 percent of whom use such health care centers as their sole healthcare provider. No amount of Luntz-esque spin will change that fact.
The bottom line is this: Mitt Romney is bad for women. And for a candidate who touts himself as a businessman, his anti-women platform is outright stupid. Mitt thinks that killing family planning services will balance the budget. Spoiler alert! It won’t.
Liberals, women (with brains), women-adjacent, and men who support women are all rightfully scared of Rick Santorum. Well, be scared of Romney too. He is as extreme if not more extreme than Santorum. He has no principles and will say or do anything. That’s a dangerous combination.
*** I am one of those reporters! Looks like I’m a media outlet now! #humblebrag
(To check out some statistics on Planned Parenthood, visit Team Uterati Wiki. I’m just learning how to wiki and we’re still designing the site, but feel free to poke around!)
[Stand with Planned Parenthood- DONATE.]
[cross-posted at ABLC]
Michael
Eh, the ad was OK, but I would’ve preferred the clip they have paired with a clip of him discussing corporate tax cuts or something to really draw out the connection.
Cluttered Mind
There needs to be a male counterpart to Team Uterati. Perhaps “Men Who Hate Men Who Hate Women”? I am too tired to come up with a wittier name than that at the moment, so I’m gonna crowdsource it out to the commentariat.
ABL 2.0
@Cluttered Mind: men are welcome into Team Uterati. Several have already signed up. :)
Mark S.
Don’t corporations sometimes need family planning?
RedKitten
I have nothing left except for growls of incoherent rage. Seriously — it’s time for women to start marching. This is regoddamndiculous.
Cluttered Mind
@ABL 2.0: The two closest friends I have are not-well-off women who these kinds of laws are specifically designed to target. Hand me my gun, I’ll deploy to the front lines any time.
Percysowner
Oh, I suspect he could do more than pulling funding and axing Title X. He could order the IRS to pull the nonprofit status of Planned Parenthood. That would hurt too. I mean PP could contest it, but that would take time and money. I’m beginning to think the Repubs are more evil than even I thought, and that is really hard.
The Bearded Blogger
@Cluttered Mind: Dudes with dicks that aren’t dicks? too long
@RedKitten: The only good answre is a severe ass kikicking in the polls in november
Egg Berry
@Percysowner:
Can the president do that?
beth
I think I finally get what the Republicans are doing. They’re trying to infuriate us to the point of dangerously high blood pressure, strokes and exploding heads. We can’t vote in November if we’re dead. It’s the only answer.
beltane
@RedKitten: Yeah, I recognize the right of these people to believe in whatever demented, evil creed they chose, but I will never recognize their right to force their demented, evil religion on anyone else.
I can’t wait for the backlash against these f*ckers.
Mattminus
ABL, your liberal bias is showing
I find it offensive that not once in the post is it mentioned that a shitty comedian once said a mean thing about a woman, so both sides do it.
Cluttered Mind
@Percysowner: It wouldn’t be too hard, really. The Republicans completely demolished ACORN, and the only reason they haven’t been able to get away with doing the same thing to Planned Parenthood is because Planned Parenthood has a wider base of support and the Republicans don’t control enough of the levers of government to make that irrelevant. If they take the Senate and the White House, I don’t expect Planned Parenthood to survive. Don’t assume that just because you don’t see a legal way for them to do it that they can’t or won’t do it. All Romney would need to do is get his own John Yoo stand-in to write up a convoluted memo saying it’s okay for him to bulldoze all the Planned Parenthood facilities in the country and then do it. It’s a lot easier to destroy an organization in a flash than it is to rebuild it in a year.
The Bearded Blogger
@Egg Berry: Republican presidents don’t go by the constitution… Nixon set precedent for that
kdaug
What’s amusing to me is that the old boy thinks he’s had a hard time so far.
Buddy, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Go ahead. “Win”. Please.
Then perhaps President Obama will be polite and wipe the Mitt sauce off the corners of his mouth with his pinky.
Instead of with the back of his hand.
Felinious Wench, Team Uterati
Mitt panders to everyone but women. I want some pandering, damn it! A panderita, perhaps?
Seriously, this has all created a very significant change in my belief system. Up until maybe 2 weeks ago, I was able to say “the X I know isn’t contributing to this problem, so even though their leaders are pushing this agenda, it’s not the same thing.” Nope, that’s bullshit. If even one penny in a collection plate is being used to fund these assholes, the people putting in the money are culpable. If someone votes for them, they’re culpable. And I’m done excusing it because someone is “really a good person.” They are, but they’re supporting the people who are against ME and my freedoms. And it’s not OK with me any more.
ABL 2.0
@RedKitten: women are marching on 4/28.
Cluttered Mind
Also, I do not believe that electoral backlash will ever convince them of anything. These are the same people who insisted that the Democrats must roll over and let Bush do whatever he wanted after the 2004 election because of his “mandate”, when in fact Bush had won with one of the slimmest margins any sitting president had ever been re-elected with, and with his victory in Ohio in dispute. When Obama won in 2008 with an actual mandate, and an unmistakable landslide, these same assholes wasted no time in throwing up roadblocks before the man had even been inaugurated. Elections only matter to wingnuts when they win. If they lose, it was not a legitimate election and they are free to ignore the results.
LanceThruster
Expect him to try to sh!tcan the ASPCA as well as they might take exception to his preferred dog transport methods. His views on the treatment of women on the whole do not seems any more enlightened at all.
What a f#cking schmuck.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
Shorter Romney (alright, longer Romney) — I know I’m saying stupid shit for a general election, but I wont to be president so fucking bad, I will saying anything to get these nasty wingnuts to vote for my clueless ass. Besides, it’s not I really care about womens health, except for them benefiting my bottom line by paying them less than equal pay with male labor.
Did I just say male labor? Maybe I should be female labor, but not that kind of labor, the other kind. Oh noes, hep and somebody stop me, please!!
BGinCHI
The only silver lining here is that Mitt gets pulled so far to the right he becomes unelectable. At least then he can’t fool the fools in the voting population that he’s the Business Jesus come to save us all.
kerFuFFler
@ABL 2.0:
I’m excited about the march and the one planned by the same folks for September 16 in DC.
I think families need to show the happy, pro-family side of family planning instead of allowing it to be portrayed as a plot by child-hating feminazis. Perhaps an array of thousands of submitted photos of beautiful smiling families
with the caption “We planned our happy family!” In any event I think I know what my sign at the march will say.
Cluttered Mind
@kerFuFFler: It also is worth saying that if a woman wants birth control so that she can be single and have an active sex life without the risk of a child, there’s nothing wrong with that either. As a man in the same situation, I’m damn glad that birth control exists. What gets lost in a lot of this is that even someone who wants to have sex and NEVER wants children still has a right to birth control. It’s not just for family planning. Some people don’t feel they should be forced to be celibate just because they aren’t prepared for a family at this point in their lives, or maybe ever.
JR in WVa
It just shows how uninformed he is that he thinks he can shut down a private institution. I donate to PP every month, and to public radio. It’s part of our budget, and limits the amount of beluga and Mumm’s we can buy. (We don’t actually buy caviar, spouse doesn’t like the graininess of the little eggs popping in your mouth. Bubbly on rare occasion is another story!).
But seriously, people all over the country support Planned Parenthood, a private organization, with volunteer work and hard-earned money. Romney can’t shut down Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, The National Wild Turkey Foundation (No, the birds, not the bourbon!) or even the Sports Car Club of America. These private organizations belong to their members, and Williard doesn’t have any control over them.
What a DICK this man is!
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
well armed, I trust
beltane
@Cluttered Mind: The right-wing operates under the assumption that sex itself is inherently evil and can only be justified when it is engaged in for purposes of procreation. This is a specifically Christian view of sex, and while I have no objection to these people desiring to become Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, I personally do not share their views even at the most abstract of levels.
If the world is too dirty and fallen a place for these people, maybe they should consider making an exit and leaving the rest of us alone.
scav
Pro-Choice can apparently also mean in favor of the choice of whether or not to have sex, whether or not to have possibly procreative sex, whether or not to to rely solely upon a doctors advice as to your health and not a legislator or priest, even in non-life-threatening circumstances, in favor of being able to insure yourself against specific events even using your own money, etc. etc. etc. They really are morphing into the Anti-Choice Faction in front of our eyes.
Boots Day
… when practiced by women. Have any of these people thundering against contraception mentioned even once that maybe men shouldn’t be having so much sex? Anyone? It seems like they haven’t figured out that when women have sex, it’s generally with men.
Cluttered Mind
@beltane: This is why I suggested relocating all of them to Newt’s moon colony in the previous thread.
Cluttered Mind
@Boots Day: Real conservative men have drug-fueled sex with underaged boys in the Dominican Republic with someone else’s *stupid moderation* “helpful medicine”. No birth control needed for that!
kdaug
Coming at this as a man who’s been married for 20 years:
Get the fuck out of my family.
Not kidding.
beltane
@Cluttered Mind: I like your thinking, though I’d prefer to relocate them some place further away than our Moon.
beltane
@Boots Day: Male ejaculation is the one and only cause of unwanted pregnancy. Think upon that, wingnuts.
Cluttered Mind
@beltane: How about Galt’s Gulch then? It’s about as far removed from reality as you can get.
wobbly
Yes, indeed, and all the men in this country would be so HAPPY
to get their wives/girlfriends/hook-ups off the PILL!
Talk about a short route the poorhouse, boys!
And the employers-even Catholic hospitals and colleges-can hardly wait until all their female doctors, nurses, professors housekeeping staff, and foodservice workers start pumping out a baby year after year and stick them for the hospital costs, maternity leave, etcetera…
I read on Sully’s blog that Georgetown University’s health care plan for empl0yees does cover contraception. It’s just the female students who have to shift for themselves.
Friggin’ Jesuits. Too clever by half.
RedKitten
Romney can’t shut down Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, The National Wild Turkey Foundation (No, the birds, not the bourbon!) or even the Sports Car Club of America. These private organizations belong to their members, and Williard doesn’t have any control over them.
No, but he sure as hell can hurt them. If Romney decides to gut NAWCA, for example, that’ll take a hell of a lot of funding away from DU. So no, he can’t shut them down…but he can cripple them QUITE effectively if he so chooses.
Cluttered Mind
@wobbly: Seriously. I make enough money to live a comfortable life living in my own tiny apartment in New York City, but if I had to support a family I’d be destitute and swimming in debt in no time. I’d never consider ducking responsibility for a child I fathered regardless of how I felt or ended up feeling about the mother, so yeah count me as a guy who is very very glad the pill exists.
MD Rackham
@Egg Berry: Can the president do that?
No, but there are political appointees at the IRS.
All the president has to do is say “Who will rid me of this troublesome 501(c)(4)?”
muddy
I had felt sorry for Romney, a fish out of water who doesn’t realize people actually breathe the air. I don’t anymore.
Having a contrary nature all this BS makes me wish I still had my uterus just so I could travel from state to state getting abortions. I hate that I just said that.
kc
Romney is such a lousy panderer.
muddy
I had been wondering what the Men’s Rights groups thought about this, generally they are bitching that the sneaky wimmenz are getting pregnant to make men pay child support, and no fair it’s a trick waaah etc.
I took a google around, it’s great if you want a laugh. Here’s a cute one:
http://news.mensactivism.org/node/17980
It’s still a plot for women to control men! But but I thought you didn’t want the unasked for babies? psh
David Koch
bUT, bUT, bARRY iS sTILL wORSE tAHN hITLER.
kUCINICH/cENK 2012!
burnspbesq
@Percysowner:
No, he can’t. The IRS is designed to be apolitical, and it is. And there are judicial remedies available for non-profits whose non-profit status is pulled without good reason. If that were to happen, partners from big-ass New York and DC law firms would be lined up around the block offering to represent Planned Parenthood pro bono.
burnspbesq
@MD Rackham:
A grand total of two, the Commissioner and the Chief Counsel.
The worker bees in the national office and the field are unionized. They can resist political pressure, do the right thing, and make it stick. And if they are getting pressure from the White House, they can simply pick up the phone, call their buddy in the Taxpayer Advocate’s office, and presto! they’ve got whistleblower protection.
Steve
Planned Parenthood gets hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding each year. A congressional decision to defund the organization would have very, very serious consequences. You’re not going to make up those kinds of dollars by passing the hat.
ABL 2.0
@kerFuFFler: that’s a REALLY good idea. it would make a great tumblr, if you’re into that sort of thing. :)
lacp
Coming this summer to a theater near you: RomneyBorg is The Uterator….
kerFuFFler
@ABL 2.0:
Thanks for the encouragement! I don’t know anything about tumblr but I will look into it. If anyone has helpful hints about tumblr (how to set the thing up at the outset and/or how to get people aware of the site so we get lots of pictures) please let me know.
rikyrah
say it over and over
GOP WAR ON WOMEN
and fuck Willard.
ABL 2.0
@kerFuFFler: hey there. you should register for the uterati wiki. i really really like this idea and i think it’s important that we liberal pro-choicers focus on more than just retaining the right to abort babies. we need to focus on families, and mothers, and whatnot.
We have forums and this tumblr idea would be a great topic to discuss. I can definitely help you set it up, but I will also definitely forget to keep checking this thread. or you can shoot me an email at [email protected] if you don’t want to jump into the wiki fray.
kerFuFFler
@Cluttered Mind:
Well, if you want to start a tumblr for people who like to frack a lot but don’t ever want kids, go right ahead. But don’t expect it to help switch a single fracker from voting for the GOP vs Obama. I’m trying to appeal to moderate, independent voters to help Obama win. The single, doesn’t-ever-want-kids voter presumably supports democrats and birth control access already.
Cluttered Mind
@kerFuFFler: I didn’t say it should be a campaign slogan, I just said that it shouldn’t be forgotten. The risk of campaigning entirely on one aspect of an argument is that other aspects of it can be stigmatized and seized on by the opposition as “proof” of “hypocrisy” or worse.
As an example of what I’m saying, take the flawed argument the Dems were using for pro-choice a while back. “Safe, legal, and rare.” The “rare” part of that is what enabled this whole thing with “abortion is okay if it saves the life of the mother or in the case of rape or maybe incest but never any other time.” If you are advocating for something and you allow for an implication that there are times when what you’re advocating doesn’t apply, you are building an argument on a cracked foundation, and you can be sure the wingnuts will take a chisel to those cracks until the whole thing comes down. That’s all I’m saying here. Branding and messaging is still important, of course.
Cluttered Mind
I didn’t say it should be a campaign slogan, I just said that it shouldn’t be forgotten. The risk of campaigning entirely on one aspect of an argument is that other aspects of it can be stigmatized and seized on by the opposition as “proof” of “hypocrisy” or worse.
As an example of what I’m saying, take the flawed argument the Dems were using for pro-choice a while back. “Safe, legal, and rare.” The “rare” part of that is what enabled this whole thing with “abortion is okay if it saves the life of the mother or in the case of rape or maybe (word that moderation won’t allow) but never any other time.” If you are advocating for something and you allow for an implication that there are times when what you’re advocating doesn’t apply, you are building an argument on a cracked foundation, and you can be sure the wingnuts will take a chisel to those cracks until the whole thing comes down. That’s all I’m saying here. Branding and messaging is still important, of course.
ABL 2.0
@kerFuFFler: in case you check back here, i created a forum on the uterati wiki called “Focusing on Positive Family Planning” or something. (I can’t remember the exact wording.) I really think you’re spot on about reaching independents.