Texas is the first state that has successfully excluded Planned Parenthood from providing services to women, but the manner they went about it is — how do you say — really stupid.
After attempting (and failing) to exclude Planned Parenthood from its federally-funded Women’s Health Program, Texas decided to create a state-funded Women’s Health Program specifically so it could exclude Planned Parenthood from it. (And a judge just said they could.)
Genius!
Except, not really.
Neither federal money nor taxpayer money is used for abortions in Texas. Planned Parenthood’s abortion services are fiscally and geographically separate from the rest of the services it provides: there’s no commingling of funds, and there’s no chance of walking into a clinic for a pap-smear and accidentally getting an abortion.
[read full post at ABLC]
***I’m going to try partial cross-posting for a while again. I hope it doesn’t enrage too many of you. Cheers!
comrade scott's agenda of rage
It’s not stoopid from the War on Women standpoint, ie, the Modern Republican Party.
PP is simply the latest Prime Target the right uses to demonize the left. Remember how they usta scream about the ACLU? ACORN? And I’m sure I’m forgetting a few others. In their mind, PP is responsible for freeing wimmin-folk from the bedroom/kitchen/laundry room chains and that simply can’t be tolerated.
PeakVT
Of course it’s stupid. This is Texas we’re talking about, where everything’s bigger, including the idiots.
Alison
Oh man, this would make for a great slapstick skit.
Also too, fuck these assholes. PP is a damn lifesaver for so many women…but that’s it, isn’t it? They don’t *want* those women to have lifesavers, because they couldn’t give a fuck about their lives to begin with.
Yutsano
I say we sit back and let them shoot themselves in the foot. Then wonder why so many young women are so eager to bug out of there.
Patricia Kayden
It’s stupid but that’s what the majority of voters want in Texas, I guess.
the golden ticket
The dronezzzz killed another Taliban leader. Can’t wait for wrong again Cole to rant about how wrong (translation..not wrong) it is.
Cole says Cantor “is gone” and of course he is anything but.
Tell me what stocks I should buy Cole so I can short them.
Cassidy
OH GOD! YOU CROSS POSTED! YOU SUCK!
Linda Featheringill
@Yutsano:
I spent a few years out of my life in Texas. Lovely land, crappy government.
Anyway, I found out that damnyankees are better lovers than Texas men. But I don’t know how to spread the word across Texas.
Zifnab25
Ah, I see you’ve made the classic error of assuming the abortion debate has anything to do with actual abortion. No, no, no. Planned Parenthood is an “Enemy of the People”, composed of nothing but liberal independent viper-women. It must be destroyed.
Republicans in Texas need scalps. They need to look like they are “winning”. PP makes a great target, as it is composed of undesirables who can easily be vilified and hippie-punched and who can clearly be identified as “Liberal”. The beatings will continue until moral improves.
Betty Cracker
As if! :)
Still, gotta love Texas. It makes Florida look less stupid.
Cassidy
@Linda Featheringill: Sorry. Just had this image of a tour bus traveling from town to town with a big, bold “we fuck better” on the side. Every night is ladies night.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah but where does that leave South Carolina?
catclub
@Zifnab25: “liberal independent viper-women”
Sounds pretty slinky. Do you have a newsletter to which I could subscribe?
Walker
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
South Carolina can always point at Mississippi.
Linda Featheringill
@Cassidy: #11
LOL! :-)
pseudonymous in nc
In a country with a sane healthcare system, the state would be providing reproductive health services on a walk-in basis — actually owning the facilities, paying the staff and covering the cost of treatment. (Because, duh, it’s cheaper in the long run to do this.) Yes, there might be a fear of it becoming a political pawn, but again, I’m talking about a sane system here.
As admirable as Planned Parenthood is, its existence is symptomatic of deep fuckedupness.
Persia
@Alison:
You got it.
Ash Can
Stupid? Isn’t beating up on povertistricken women the object of the game?
Cassidy
This may sound glib, and I don’t mean it to be, but women in red states who aren’t already fucked up wingers need to let “the well run dry” for a long time. No PP funding, no nookie. Plus it’s a stimulus; male prostitutes would be rolling in it.
Ed Drone
@Alison:
A scene from a movie (I forget which):
A woman goes to the hospital for some procedure, but gets put in a row of women awaiting hysterectomies. She’s knocked out and can’t tell them it’s the wrong line.
When the doctor wheels himself over to where she’s lying, he takes one look at her spread-out lady parts and says, “This isn’t Mrs. Bernstein!”
The scene worked because it looked like a genuine tragedy was about to take place, giving more ooomph! to the joke.
Ed
Chris
I think it has to do with the general conservative tribal ethic of “your actions don’t matter, only the label we stick on you matters.”
Abortion may have been the original reason why Planned Parenthood ended up on their shit list. But once you’re on that shit list, all your members are automatically evil servants of Satan, and your organization must be destroyed no matter what.
Just Some Fuckhead
OMFG, I shouldn’t have to click another link to go to your site. Just crosspost both places and include a link at the top to the post on your site. That way, anyone that wants to click over can, and anyone that doesn’t can just read it here.
ABL
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: hiking the appalachian trail?
Ed Drone
@Walker:
Only if they can tell which direction is west. (In other words, don’t count on it).
Ed
Chris
@Zifnab25:
That’s it. There you go.
Republican politics needs a scapegoat as badly as Nazi politics did.
Gin & Tonic
@Cassidy: Welcome Back, Aristophanes?
NonyNony
I hope it does. Because the comedic stylings of people getting outraged over the fact that they have to click a link on the internet never fails to amuse me.
ETA: And just like that I get a chuckle.
nancydarling
Well, it is Texas. Texas Monthly magazine just published an article about a Harvard study published in the NEJM reporting that 9,000 people a year under age 65 will die because of their refusal to accept medicaid expansion
Yutsano
@nancydarling: Yesbut…did it mention they were poor and brown or blah? You can’t expect good red-blooded Texan folk to care about those kind now can you?
Face
With the seemingly exponential increase in Brown kids being born in Texas, you’d think they’d crave some birth control and family planning. Nigh, require it. Instead they burn down the only store that supplies it to the poor melatonin-enhanced population, guarenteeing in a generation or so that they’ll be outnumbered and outvoted.
Suicide by policy?
Soonergrunt
“I’m going to try partial cross-posting for a while again. I hope it doesn’t enrage too many of you. Cheers!”
Fuck ’em if it does.
Schlemizel
So what kind of numbers are we going to be talking about here ultimately? I mean they are not going to get off scott free on this. Say an extra 2-3 thousand babies on AFDC etc every year, adding year over year? medical expenses to cover a couple hundred botched attempts to abort at home every year?
How much is this chicken shit going to cost the good tax payers of the Lone Star Shit Hole?
Normally I’d want to discuss the horrible impact on women & children this choice would have but it is obvious the assholes couldn’t care less about them. So lets put it in figures they will care about. How much is this stupidity going to cost the fuckers?
ETA: yes, I am well aware that there are some actual liberals in Texas – who cares? The state is dominated and run by low life shitheads & until that changes normal people will point at the entire state and laugh without regard to the fact that Huston eve has a gay mayor
rikyrah
@Alison:
tell the truth, why don’t you?
kathy a.
@Patricia Kayden: the majority of voters in texas want politicians deciding who can and can’t get ordinary health services? ummmm…. well, i guess that is technically true, but they wouldn’t want that for themselves.
Bob In Portland
@the golden ticket: Invest in commas, ticket.
Schlemizel
@Bob In Portland:
Better yet, invest in a coma for himself – it would be a favor to the rest of us
Linda Featheringill
@Schlemizel: #32
Perhaps our fellow reasonable people in Texas can spread the word about how much it is going to cost the state of Texas.
Do these liberals and progressive folks need our encouragement in any way?
Omnes Omnibus
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Still too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.
catclub
@Face: “Suicide by policy?”
Only one letter off of suicide by cop.
Mnemosyne
@Schlemizel:
I’m mobile and can’t search for it, but there was a recent article saying that the state government of Texas was shocked — shocked! — that they’re already having to pay for prenatal and pediatric care because of this ban. Because apparently these geniuses thought it was the birth control making wimmens pregnant, not the lack of it.
bemused
I’ll never get over how viciously mean Christian nutters are.
mapaghimagsik
@bemused:
Because Jesus.
Cassidy
@bemused: It’s always about punishment, never love and forgiveness. Wingers always like to leave out half the equation.
Frankensteinbeck
There is truth in both @Zifnab25 and @Alison‘s points. However, they ARE attacking abortion. No, the money being denied doesn’t directly fund abortions, but Planned Parenthood makes getting an abortion easier and safer, so attacking it in any way furthers their anti-abortion aim. The inefficiency of their tactic, the widescale cruelty, the way it will rebound on them and cause more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions – they don’t care. They want to wage a war on ‘baby killers’ so they can wallow in hate, self-righteousness, and having the freedom to hurt people because they feel like it.
Villago Delenda Est
@pseudonymous in nc:
The MBA mentality is the downfall of this country. Mark my words. Climate change denial is basically the MBA mentality on steroids.
Frankensteinbeck
Oh, and cultural enforcement, because you know, they can claim people who aren’t like them kill babies. It’s another example of ‘conservatism is domestic abuser thinking on a political level.’
Mandalay
I hope it does.
Seeing our champions of the disadvantaged squealing like ass-fucked piglets when they had to do an extra mouse click was the all time highlight of BJ for me.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Jaysus, I’m glad you posted this — it reminded me that I had left my pill pack at home. Poor G had to bring it to the airport for me and pass it through TSA.
(Yes, I’m flying back to Phoenix today. Unfortunately I need to ask everyone to change their thoughts and prayers for my dad to “easy and painless” at this point.)
aimai
@Schlemizel:
This just came up already. I was looking for the stats but I couldn’t find them. I believe the number of unawanted pregnancies that the state created as a result of shutting down PP is already in the 20,000’s. Texas is a big place with a lot of people having sex. If the sex is unprotected that is going to lead to a whole lot of unwanted pregnancies. Here, by the way, is a quote from a heartbreaking first person account by a woman who needed to terminate a second trimester (wanted) pregnancy of a severely damaged fetus:
Dee Loralei
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’m sorry Mneme. I do hope it’s easy and painless for your dad. Thoughts with you and your family .
Pococurante
@PeakVT:
My household donates $100 monthly to our state chapter of PP (Texas), and $15 monthly to the national organization.
Ass.
Cassidy
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Sucks. Sorry to hear that.
aimai
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
I’m just so very, very, very, sorry you are going through this. All my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family that it is peaceful, painless, and filled with love.
aimai
Cassidy
@Pococurante: Well, this suddenly explains a lot.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Sucks massively… may all the gods bless you and yours as you go through this.
Ruckus
@Cassidy:
Had similar thoughts. And even though I’ve never met Linda, I’m going to thank her for the endorsement. Course I have no idea what to do with such and endorsement. And I’m sure that it has no practical application, but still, it is nice.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Betty Cracker:
Funny, that’s what Texans say about Florida. As long as we have each other, we aren’t the most retarded states in the Union; we tag off occasionally.
Alternately, we could all start bagging on Mississippi.
Ruckus
@Face:
Suicide by policy?
Suicide by stupidity.
OK.
Suicide by ideology.
Better.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Thanks, everybody. It’s been heading this way for a long time, but you always want just a little more time.
Felinious Wench
@Pococurante:
Yes, we pull our weight too in donations to PP Texas. They need all the love we can give them.
@Linda Featheringill:
It’s really more of a “don’t kick us while we’re down” thing. Liberals and Progressives in Texas fight as hard as we can against a whole slew of people who actively hate us. HATE us. And it’s not a lost cause, but man, we have to work hard and exploit every tiny crack we find. We lose a lot more than we win.
The alternative is to shut up and stop fighting. We’re too damn stubborn to do that, much like our liberal brethren in other red states. We’re not moving, and we’re not shutting up. This is our home too, and we’d rather work to change it than let it go to a bunch of bastards.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Many of us have been through this. I have twice. It doesn’t get better but it does get a little easier. I hope that helps. A proper hospice is very helpful for a such a hard process. I hope that things work out as best as they can for everyone.
Ash Can
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): My sincerest condolences. Wishing you and yours peace and comfort through this trying time.
Cassidy
@Felinious Wench:
You’re right. I feel bad for the things I’ve said about Texas and take it back. Sorry.
R-Jud
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
You’re making Arizona feel AWFULLY blue. They’ve been working so hard!
sm*t cl*de
“liberal independent viper-women”
Sounds pretty slinky. Do you have a newsletter to which I could subscribe?
The answer is always Oglaf.
thalarctos
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’m really sorry, Mnemosyne. I’ll echo the wishes already expressed that it is easy and painless, and that he knows he is surrounded by love.
Take good care of yourself, too. It sounds like you have a good support system.
sparrow
@Villago Delenda Est: Downfall of the world, I think you mean.
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Hey, Hospice does quick and easy better than anyone. So get you Folks with Hospice. The most caring people you will ever meet.
My Dad had COPD from chemo for his leukemia, which he beat for all practical purposes. Lived for years when the average survival for his diagnosis was 9 months. But the chemo damaged his lungs, so his blood O2 levels started down, and eventually he couldn’t run his body with the amount of oxygen he could absorb.
So we got with a local doctor who was the medical manager of the local hospice group. And they helped him slide out of this world with the least pain and most comfort – I was with him most all day every day for his last weeks. I held his hand, and read while he slept, and chatted when he woke up.
It was good for all of us.
So Hospice is who you should get in touch with.