Defund Planned Parenthood If You Want to Increase Teen Birth Rates and Abortions

[Nous]

In 2011, the Texas legislature slashed funding to family planning clinics by 67% , and further restructured the system into various tiers so that clinics providing only family planning services would receive a smaller share of the funding. By the end of 2012, 25% of family planning clinics in the state had closed, 18% reduced hours, and nearly 50% fired staff; many clinics began charging or increasing fees for services that had been free or low-cost. By the end of another year, more than 160 clinics had lost all funding and 82 had closed. Impoverished, heavily Hispanic areas of the Panhandle and South Texas suffered disproportionately larger cuts in funding and access. In 2012 Governor Rick Perry boasted that he “was really proud to be able to sign into legislation to defund Planned Parenthood,” and that his goal for the state was to continue to “pass laws to ensure abortions are as rare as possible under existing law”.

Just the opposite happened. A study by Analisa Packham of Miami University found that the legislation led to an increase in teen birth rates by 3.7-4.7% two years after the funding cuts, and 10.3-11.2% three years afterward, accompanied by an increase in abortion rates of 4.9% two years after, and 3.1% over three years: Family Planning Funding Cuts and Teen Childbearing

So, if you want to increase the rates of abortions and impoverished teens having babies, Texas has figured out the formula: defund Planned Parenthood.

 

[Sunstone]

Texas now not only has the highest pregnancy related death rate in the US, but also the highest pregnancy related death rate in the developed world outside of Mexico.

These skyrocketing maternal death rates have been linked by some to the defunding of Planned Parenthood, and perhaps to other initiatives by Texas Republicans.

Source.

 

[SomeRandom]

I will never understand this sort of mindset. You want to decrease abortions and teen pregnancy. But instead of providing family health services and sex ed, you do away with them at all costs. It's like wanting to decrease work related accidents and then refuse to implement safety measures. Like what did you expect?!

 

[Underhill]

I will never understand this sort of mindset. You want to decrease abortions and teen pregnancy. But instead of providing family health services and sex ed, you do away with them at all costs. It's like wanting to decrease work related accidents and then refuse to implement safety measures. Like what did you expect?!

Yeah but not having sex is the most successful form of birth control there is! (that is sarcasm by the way)

 

[Quetzal]

I will never understand this sort of mindset. You want to decrease abortions and teen pregnancy. But instead of providing family health services and sex ed, you do away with them at all costs. It's like wanting to decrease work related accidents and then refuse to implement safety measures. Like what did you expect?!

I find that reason is typically lost on the opposing side of the argument.

 

[PureX]

Texas now not only has the highest pregnancy related death rate in the US, but also the highest pregnancy related death rate in the developed world outside of Mexico.

These skyrocketing maternal death rates have been linked by some to the defunding of Planned Parenthood, and perhaps to other initiatives by Texas Republicans.

Source.

Texans don't really care about this. They believe the "sluts" deserve what they get, even if it's to bleed to death from a back-alley abortion. This is the same state that executes people that have been wrongly convicted and doesn't care about that, either. They just want someone executed for the crime as quickly as possible, and they don't really care if they got the right guy, or not. "Hang 'em fast and hang 'em high, boys!", that's the Texas state motto.

Planned Parenthood uses no public money to perform abortions. So defunding them has no effect on their ability to perform abortion. It does, however, effect the millions of women that get free breast cancer screenings and many other necessary preventative health care procedures, as well as the above mentioned access to birth control information and materials.

But in Texas, only whores and sluts would want these things, and they're all going to rot in hell, anyway. So why not help send them on their way, right? Especially if it will get you elected to public office, and make you a very fine upstanding fellow amongst your community of fools and bigots.

 

[tytlyf]

Let me guess, the money that went to PP now goes to a corrupt corporations in Texas?

That's the problem with republicans, they don't want the middle class to have success. Suck that money out from every program that helps the middle class. Give it to the corporations and special interests buying up your party!

 

[metis]

Yeah but not having sex is the most successful form of birth control there is!

Which is caused by getting married.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

All life is sacred. At least until it's born.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I will never understand this sort of mindset. You want to decrease abortions and teen pregnancy. But instead of providing family health services and sex ed, you do away with them at all costs. It's like wanting to decrease work related accidents and then refuse to implement safety measures. Like what did you expect?!

The actions of the so-called "pro-life" movement don't make any sense if you assume they're motivated by a desire to reduce the number of abortions, but almost all of them can be reconciled with a motivation to punish women for having sex that they disapprove of.

I know that we can't see into people's hearts, yadda, yadda, but their lack of action on improving the alternatives to abortion and making them more available speaks volumes.

 

[tytlyf]

The actions of the so-called "pro-life" movement don't make any sense if you assume they're motivated by a desire to reduce the number of abortions, but almost all of them can be reconciled with a motivation to punish women for having sex that they disapprove of.

I know that we can't see into people's hearts, yadda, yadda, but their lack of action on improving the alternatives to abortion and making them more available speaks volumes.

The anti-abortion/choice crowd is a religious movement. America has the first amendment protecting our secular society from religious law.

 

[Augustus]

Yeah but not having sex is the most successful form of birth control there is!

That's why you shouldn't teach sex education in schools because it's the only reason teenagers choose to have sex.

 

[Underhill]

That's why you shouldn't teach sex education in schools because it's the only reason teenagers choose to have sex.

Yep! It clearly has nothing to do with the fact that most teenagers would have sex with a fence post if they thought they could get away with it without getting a splinter.

 

[sun rise]

All life is sacred. At least until it's born.

The Catholic Church is at least consistent whether you agree with them or not. This is especially so under Pope Francis.

 

[Nous]

The Catholic Church is at least consistent whether you agree with them or not. This is especially so under Pope Francis.

The Catholic Church is consistent in the proposition that "all life is sacred, at least until it is born"? No, I don't think you want to make that claim.

 

[sun rise]

The Catholic Church is consistent in the proposition that "all life is sacred, at least until it is born"? No, I don't think you want to make that claim.

That was not my point - all life is sacred from birth to death was my intent.

 

[Nous]

Texans don't really care about this. They believe the "sluts" deserve what they get, even if it's to bleed to death from a back-alley abortion. This is the same state that executes people that have been wrongly convicted and doesn't care about that, either. They just want someone executed for the crime as quickly as possible, and they don't really care if they got the right guy, or not. "Hang 'em fast and hang 'em high, boys!", that's the Texas state motto.

Planned Parenthood uses no public money to perform abortions. So defunding them has no effect on their ability to perform abortion. It does, however, effect the millions of women that get free breast cancer screenings and many other necessary preventative health care procedures, as well as the above mentioned access to birth control information and materials.

But in Texas, only whores and sluts would want these things, and they're all going to rot in hell, anyway. So why not help send them on their way, right? Especially if it will get you elected to public office, and make you a very fine upstanding fellow amongst your community of fools and bigots.

I lived in Houston for about a decade. My husband is from Austin. In many ways it's difficult for me to distinguish everyday life in these cities from that in, say, Boston.

 

[Nous]

That was not my point - all life is sacred from birth to death was my intent.

Obviously the Catholic Church isn't consistent in that proposition.

 

[PureX]

I lived in Houston for about a decade. My husband is from Austin. In many ways it's difficult for me to distinguish everyday life in these cities from that in, say, Boston.

Sure, the traffic lights are red, green, and yellow just like everywhere else.

 

[columbus]

The anti-abortion/choice crowd is a religious movement. America has the first amendment protecting our secular society from religious law.

No it isn't.
There is nothing religious about believing both:
A) Biology shows that individual human beings begin with the merging of two haploid cells and continue until death.
B) Human beings feeling entitled to choose death for other human beings tends to degrade the human situation, which makes it immoral.

If you would like to find more resources on the subject of prolife atheists, Google "prolife atheists". Or start with:
Yes, There Are Pro-Life Atheists Out There. Here’s Why I’m One of Them

Tom