Nah, it's just that I have a higher GC scroll/pin number than you, so I'm still entitled to intertube haze at will.

Numerist.

I'm pro-life, but I'm all for PP. This would really suck if they lost their funding. When I was laid off and lost my health insurance, PP is how I got my yearly pelvics and my BC pill. Maybe it makes me a hypocrite?

I don't think so. I think there are a lot of people out there who support planned parenthood as a legitimate reproductive healthcare provider but object to them offering abortion services (or even would identify as pro-life but don't object to them offering it because it's currently a legal medical procedure). Unfortunately, it's the folks that are of the mind that PP is evil because they offer abortions (to hell with all the other fantastic services they provide to the underinsured/uninsured/everyone else) that are the ones that are pushing this amendment.

I will say one thing, the threat of PP and public broadcasting losing their funding has motivated me to donate to PP, NPR, and PBS. It's a drop in the bucket compared to federal funding but every little bit does make a difference.

I think PP should split into two different agencies; One that does the abortion stuff and one that handles all the non abortion services. According to the radio news they make most of their money off of abortion services, so that side of PP could fund itself while te other side could still receive Gov funding w/o all the controversy.

I don't understand this... Only 3% of Planned Parenthood's "business" is abortion services according to their 2007 data.

This is how it breaks down:
- 36% Contraception
- 31% STI Testing and Treatment
- 17% Cancer Screening and Prevention
- 11% Other Women's Health Services (Prenatal care, pregnancy tests, midlife care, infertility services)
- 3% Abortion Services (305,310 abortions in 2007)
- 2% Other Services (Primary care for women and men, adoption referrals)

The income from their centers only makes up 36% of their funding (which, is actually the largest percentage.
Government grants make up 34%, contributions and bequests make up 24%, and "other" makes up 6%.

I'm assuming that the person on the radio meant that most of the money that comes through the centers is made in abortions, since 58% of PP's money comes from the government and contributions. My source doesn't say what services are the "money makers" but at only 3% of the services offered it makes it unlikely that that's where they make all their money, especially considering a lot of people go to them for contraception (I'm not talking condoms although you can get those there too, I'm talking birth control pills, for the most part).

I know they offer a lot of services for free or really cheap, but their abortion services are cheap, as well, compared to an independent practitioner.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/AR08_vFinal.pdf

In many places it already is. They'll have Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Surgical Services as two seperate entitities, but that doesn't make for good copy.

what the eff?? How do you punish someone for a natural process?

News from Georgia on Miscarriage Bill by Rep Bobby Francis

By Jen Phillips

It's only February, but this year has been a tough one for women's health and reproductive rights. There's a new bill on the block that may have reached the apex (I hope) of woman-hating craziness. Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin—who last year proposed making rape and domestic violence "victims" into "accusers"—has introduced a 10-page bill that would criminalize miscarriages and make abortion in Georgia completely illegal. Both miscarriages and abortions would be potentially punishable by death: any "prenatal murder" in the words of the bill, including "human involvement" in a miscarriage, would be a felony and carry a penalty of life in prison or death. Basically, it's everything an "pro-life" activist could want aside from making all women who've had abortions wear big red "A"s on their chests.

I doubt that a bill that makes a legal medical procedure liable for the death penalty will pass. The bill, however, shows an astonishing lack of concern for women's health and well-being. Under Rep. Franklin's bill, HB 1, women who miscarry could become felons if they cannot prove that there was "no human involvement whatsoever in the causation" of their miscarriage. There is no clarification of what "human involvement" means, and this is hugely problematic as medical doctors do not know exactly what causes miscarriages. Miscarriages are estimated to terminate up to a quarter of all pregnancies and the Mayo Clinic says that "the actual number is probably much higher because many miscarriages occur so early in pregnancy that a woman doesn't even know she's pregnant. Most miscarriages occur because the fetus isn't developing normally."

Holding women criminally liable for a totally natural, common biological process is cruel and non-sensical. Even more ridiculous, the bill holds women responsible for protecting their fetuses from "the moment of conception," despite the fact that pregnancy tests aren't accurate until at least 3 weeks after conception. Unless Franklin (who is not a health professional) invents a revolutionary intrauterine conception alarm system, it's unclear how exactly the state of Georgia would enforce that rule other than holding all possibly-pregnant women under lock and key.

^^^ Wow.

In related news, I've introduced a bill that will make eating bread illegal on the basis of murdering the poor wheat and yeast - that is, unless you can prove the yeast and wheat were unharmed in your vicious mastication of their union, and/or that you can prove that their untimely and innocent death was not a direct result of your face-based assault.

Enjoy prison, you panini-eating murderer.

I'm pro-plow. Sorry.

Mmmmm mastication.

I second that. I had to read it twice to believe it.

It takes a rare man to be openly pro-plow in an abortion thread. Kudos, sir.

Yeah, I meant to say that abortion services is the "money maker" for PP, not their main source of income.

Which I can totally see if they offer most services for free yet charge $300 per abortion.