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Today the United States Senate, a governing body wholly unrepresentative of America at large, voted to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
The vote came as part of a larger attempt by Republicans to repeal the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, which they will vote on later in the week.
Both this vote and the Obamacare repeal are largely understood to be symbolic. Any legislation regarding the president’s signature legislative achievement will be vetoed by Obama, and Republicans don’t have the numbers to overturn a presidential veto.
But just because it’s symbolic doesn’t mean it’s not meaningful. Republicans want you to know they will take a sledgehammer to an organization that actively benefits the public welfare because they don’t like one teeny aspect of it. Yes, Planned Parenthood does provide abortions. But this is cutting off your thumb if you had a hangnail.
And they’re using that one thing to completely slander and dismantle an organization that does wonderful, tremendous things for women. It really does. If you don’t believe it, and are one of those blockheaded dudes for whom other people’s experiences are a distant impossibility in your mind — Durr, I’ve never needed Plan B because I don’t have a uterus so no one else should — just ask your girlfriend. Or anyone. They’ll tell you how much the organization does for women and America at large.
From providing access to birth control (which every male should want), to giving health screenings to people who can’t afford it, to offering sex education to anyone who wants it, Planned Parenthood is an organization that really only does good things.
You can still be anti-abortion and understand that. But nuance is not grasped by old white men in power, who railed against the organization for having the gall to provide services that are legal rights in this country.
It’d be like getting pissed at a gun store for selling guns, which damn fuck Republicans ain’t gonna do.
So, fuck it, let’s destroy the whole damn thing.
It’s a fucking shame in this country that the singular most predominant trait in our politicians is a completely lack of empathy for anyone who doesn’t exist in the same bubble of perfect privilege as them. Sure, they’ll pretend to care — witness the slew of thoughts and prayers directed towards victims of the San Bernardino shooting yesterday — but they don’t. They don’t.
When told that an organization helps the poor, such as providing them with medical service, is it human to whip out your dick and piss on it because you don’t like it?
Thank god they can’t actually pull this bullshit, but the fact that they are trying, a god damn week after a Planned Parenthood was shot to shit, should tell you everything you need to know.
LOL less than a week.
“Individuals who speak out for the life of children shouldn’t suddenly be silenced by being screamed down because an insane person does a shooting in a clinic,” said Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma.
Republicans really do love standing behind guns and their owners.
[Via NPR]