To hear Maine Republicans tell it, all would be right with the world if they could just pass a bill in the next legislative session to defund Planned Parenthood. This simple act would result in the federal budget being balanced, the Islamic State being defeated, Russian President Vladimir Putin making obsequious concessions to the United States and the Boston Red Sox signing a legitimate ace pitcher.
Oh, and the price of beer would go way down.
Curse you, abortionists, for denying those of us who are not pregnant and will probably never become pregnant a return to the simple pleasures of peace, prosperity and dollar drafts.
On the other hand, those living in the Roe v. Wade world of legal access to reproductive health care are able to avoid such unwanted side effects of pregnancy as diaper changing, buying a new pair of pricey sneakers every 20 minutes and putting a lock on the beer refrigerator to keep out unruly teenagers.
It may be a wash.
Nevertheless, the GOP remains adamant that all government money must be taken away from Planned Parenthood because the organization provides fetal tissue to medical research facilities for use in curing a variety of illnesses. As Republican state representatives Richard Pickett of East Dixfield, Mary Anne Kinney of Knox and Beth Turner of Burlington put it in a Sept. 27 op-ed in the Lewiston Sun Journal, “Any human being of good character and clear conscience should realize that selling baby organs and limbs for money is wrong.”
Would trading them for food be OK?
Pickett, Kinney and Turner go on to say they want to cut public money for Planned Parenthood in order to “put a stop to the unlawful use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion that might result in the harvesting and selling of baby body parts.”
Note the word “unlawful.” If these lawmakers have evidence that Planned Parenthood is using tax money to fund abortions, they should contact the attorney general without delay. If not, their proposal seems pointless, since cutting off funding for something that isn’t being funded might not be the most productive use of the legislative process.
There’s also that word “might.” In Maine, Planned Parenthood says it doesn’t sell fetal tissue and has no plans to do so. It still “might” do so, just as I “might” write a column extolling the virtues of Gov. Paul LePage’s management style. “Might” is poor justification for passing a law.
Fortunately, not all members of the GOP are taking such an extreme approach – at least not consistently. Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of the state’s 2nd Congressional District told Maine Public Radio last month that a blanket ban on federal money for the organization was poor policy. “We should fund the other parts of Planned Parenthood that allows other services for women to go on,” Poliquin said.
Shortly thereafter, he voted to defund all of them.
In no way am I attempting to portray Poliquin as a weaseling undersized tool. The tool part is mere speculation. Without DNA testing or something, there’s no way to know for sure. But there’s considerable evidence of weaseling. And irrefutable proof he’s undersized.
All this controversy over Planned Parenthood is only marginally about the heavily edited videos that suggest it’s engaged in perfectly legal activities, albeit with uncaring attitudes that wouldn’t have been out of place in the executive suites of Volkswagen. The real agenda here is the conservative crusade to ban abortion. Putting Planned Parenthood on the defensive is just the latest in a series of guerrilla actions designed to return women’s health care to the glorious back alleys of the 1950s.
In the most recent legislative session, the GOP, alleged champions of cutting red tape, attempted to impose new – and redundant – licensing procedures on clinics that offer abortion services. They also tried to institute additional restrictions on when teenagers could get abortions. The year before, Republicans attempted to pass bills that essentially forced doctors to try to talk women out of having abortions and to allow wrongful-death lawsuits for killing a fetus.
In spite of all this, Republicans claim they’re not trying to make abortion illegal. As with defunding Planned Parenthood, they’re hoping to make it impossible.
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