I try to understand where people are coming from when they are anti-abortion, and to some extent I see how it could be misused. However, there are many cases in which having an abortion is necessary.
So many scenarios represent the backgrounds of women who receive abortions. For example, what if it would physically harm the woman, what if the woman was raped, there are many what ifs that come to mind and yet it seems anyone who chooses to have an abortion is automatically deemed a horrible person by many conservatives. Taking issue with someone who repeatedly must take this route due to personal irresponsibility is something I could understand, however, that should not lead to punishment of those who truly require the service.
Abortions are not the only service provided by Planned Parenthood, but it seems that Texas Republicans can only fulfill their anti-abortion agenda by cutting $61 million in funding from the organization. Apparently they forgot about the many needed, and more used, programs offered such as “contraception, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infection, and cancer screening and prevention.” In cutting this funding, they may get the results intended in terms of abortion rate but they will also be hurting the millions of people who rely on the other services provided.
This isn’t final; the bill will still pass through the Senate and receive additional tweaking before being negotiated on by both the House and the Senate. What happens if this outrageous amount does pass through? What about the people who will have no source for the services outlined above and the children born into a life not fit for anyone? It seems as though the people involved in making these decisions have only their desires in mind and do not consider the harm some changes will cause.
Throughout most of my political blogging days, the focus of my writing has been on the injustice of Texan conservative politics on the public school system. On reading a blog post on Lauren Daniel's Cowboys vs Politics, I felt I should reiterate her point that the conservative political agenda is not limited to just my areas of interest, but rather expands to encompass several social programs.
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, Lauren's post brings to light the plan by Texas Republicans to cut $61 million in spending from the budget of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood as an organization has long been a target, albeit largely unfairly, of the fundamentalist conservative bloc. Despite the fact that abortions are only a small portion of the public health services offered by PP, the organization is demonized by the conservatives. And in furtherance of the conservative political agenda, they are now being targeted for budget cuts.
It's as if it weren't enough that they went through our history and social sciences textbooks and literally changed history to better reflect their agenda. Now they are using politics to push a morality agenda through financial strangulation. Why just the other day I read that a bus driver here in Austin refused to take a couple of women to Planned Parenthood, was fired for failing to do his job, and then successfully sued for wrongful termination by claiming he was fired for his religious beliefs. Really.
I would like to return to a time when people believed in the idea of separation of Church and State. The only problem with that hope, of course, is the fact that for some people the two have never been separate, and should never be. I love this state, but sometimes I hate its politics.