Who will win?
by digby
The battle of Planned Parenthood:
Anti-abortion groups all want the Senate to take the vote on 20-week abortion abortion ban but are divided on where Congress should go from there. Susan B. Anthony List is telling lawmakers that they need to advance a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood no matter the risks, while National Right to Life believes the battle should wait until a Republican is in the White House.
“People need to understand the consequences and the real picture; this is a question of strategy,” Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, told POLITICO.Republicans have also suggested using budget reconciliation as a way around a Democratic filibuster, though President Barack Obama would veto any spending bill that defunds Planned Parenthood. Such a maneuver is unlikely to satisfy the party’s right wing since it would not force the issue in the same manner as a spending bill that defunds Planned Parenthood.
“Having this fight is important morally and politically,” said SBA List spokeswoman Mallory Quigley. “The House needs to send the Senate a funding bill without Planned Parenthood funding.”
FYI:
Cutting off Planned Parenthood’s funding would result in a net savings of $235 million over a decade, while also resulting in “several thousand” unplanned births that would drive up government costs elsewhere, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
A bill to freeze the provider’s funding would save $390 million in Medicaid spending over the next year, according to a report from the nonpartisan office. But it would also cost Medicaid about $60 million more because of the additional pregnancies by women who no longer receive birth control. […]CBO warned that 15 percent of patients would lose access to care. The people most likely to be affected are those living in areas without other healthcare clinics that cater to low-income populations—most of Planned Parenthood’s current clientele.
No biggie. Those women should stop having sex. See? Easy peasy. And they can always buy some Obamacare. Well, until they “defund” that too. But maybe the churches can step and provide pap smears and mammograms. And anyway, if you’re so poor you need Planned Parenthood maybe you should just stop being so poor.
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