Aug 6^th

Kathleen Parker has taken to task Planned Parenthood; this is now required of all right wing pundits. The “Center for Medical Progress” sent con artists to discuss buying fetal tissue from some Planned Parenthood (PP) officials. The recording of this encounter was carefully edited to make it appear that fetal tissue was offered for sale. Nothing illegal was done although the Center for Medical Progress has sucked a number of right wingers into believing that some awful sins were committed by PP.

Ronald Reagan in 1988 convened a twenty person panel to discuss the ethics of using harvested fetal tissue for research; seventeen of twenty panel members approved. Then in 1990 the issue of using federal funds for harvesting fetal tissue arose. That stalwart conservative Senator McConnell voted to approve their use for that purpose. The upshot is that there is nothing illegal about using fetal tissue for research. It is not illegal to recover a portion of the cost of harvesting this tissue either; it is illegal for the harvesting entity to harvest tissue and make a profit from its sale. Try as they might the con artists haven’t even, with extensive editing, managed to make a case that PP was pricing out fetal parts. Never mind, the lack of evidence, the prepared conservative mind was ready to believe just what the hucksters suggested to them.

Now there is great hue and cry to defund PP. This is curious because the government funds given to PP have never been available for abortions, so the right wing effort to defund PP is just another effort to reduce available health care for women and punish PP. Keep in mind that only 3 percent of PPs funds go to provide abortions and none of those are government funds. The removal of federal funds will then drastically reduce, not abortions, but contraceptive services and STD diagnosis and treatment, two of the primary PP efforts. Of course it is probable that the fundamentalist movements in Congress will be delighted to see funds removed from any group helping women to achieve birth control. You may remember the wiseacre billionaire Santorum supporter Foster Friess who oh so cleverly touted holding an aspirin between the knees as an effective birth control method for women. You can see how seriously the right wing takes women’s issues.

 Finally Parker tells us that there are over 9 thousand community health centers compared with just 669 PP outlets. Therefore, says Parker, women can get all the health care they need from community health centers. Do these community health centers provide IUDs? Do they treat the complications of STDs? It is odd to hear a Republican suggest that government run organizations are more suited to help citizens than privately run charitable entities. Center for Medical Progress has been successful, at least with Kathleen Parker.