Abortion

[Enoch the Red]

Oddly enough, a spokeswoman from Indiana Planned Parenthood was just interviewed on cable TV, explaining how 1/3 less funding makes a bigger impact than most people can appreciate. Think about that---1/3 fewer mammograms, 1/3 fewer pelvic exams and PAP smears, 1/3 fewer diaphragm fittings or IUD insertions---would you want to be a woman in that group, or have your lover/mother/sister/aunt/grandma in that group?

She said they were grateful for private donations from people trying to make up the difference, but it's a weekly and monthly struggle.

Yay for the USA. We certainly are "exceptional", huh.

Apparently PP is the only game in town.

I love the false dichotomy. Fund PP or your lover/mother/sister/aunt/grandma will die!

[oldmunchkin]

Apparently PP is the only game in town.

For many places, it is the only free or low-cost game in town. What part of it's too expensive to go to the doctor on a monthly, tri-monthly, or yearly basis don't you get? A visit to a gynecologist is around $250, if they do a pap it's around $100 at the doctor's office and then however much for some lab to read the test and send the results. If you are lucky to have a clean pap, then no more doc visits for a year, by which time the cost will have risen...again! If you have an abnormal test, then there are visits, sometimes monthly, for more paps. Each of those visits have the $250 office call plus the $100 pap test, plus the lab to read it and they, of course, send you a bill each time! If your doctor's office has a mammogram, then there is whatever cost associated with that, plus the reading of the test. If you have to go outside for the test, there is another, separate charge, plus the reading. If you have a diaphragm or IUD, some doctors insist on seeing you every 6 months...at that $250 charge per visit. If you have depo shots, you have to go in every 3 months, altho that charge, after the initial visit, may be less than a doctor's visit, since the nurse usually gives the shots. BC implants are usually in place for 5 years, but you must bear the initial doctor's visit, plus another fee for the implantation. Some doctors insist on 6 month visits for these, others let you go a year between visits. Are you starting to see how the "other game in town" is too expensive for people who are low income and have no insurance? A visit to PP is based on your ability to pay, a sliding scale type thing. I am not sure how the reading of the tests work, but I know that no one is swatted with a huge bill for those either!

I love the false dichotomy. Fund PP or your lover/mother/sister/aunt/grandma will die!

Well if your lover/mother/sister/aunt/grandma can't afford to see a full priced doctor, there is that possibility!

[Enoch the Red]

For many places, it is the only free or low-cost game in town.

For many places? What are you basing that off of?

Perhaps if Women's Health Clinic X got 300 million dollars a year in government grants/subsidies they could also provide necessary services for the poor, couldn't they?

The false dichotomy is that Planned Parenthood, and only Planned Parenthood is capable of providing these services.

[oldmunchkin]

For many places? What are you basing that off of?

Regardless of what you think, there is a large...very large...portion of this country that is very rural. Sometimes it's even a hundred miles or more to get to a doctor. Sheesh, add that cost to the others! I don't know about the ubercrowded cities in this country, but out here PP even makes "house calls", coming to a town closer to where some women live. So, I am basing it on "personal" experience that leads to common sense! Not everyone is a city dweller. Some of us prefer the rural areas, even when it means we have to travel for care. You know...out here in Real America!

Perhaps if Women's Health Clinic X got 300 million dollars a year in government grants/subsidies they could also provide necessary services for the poor, couldn't they?

The false dichotomy is that Planned Parenthood, and only Planned Parenthood is capable of providing these services.

Perhaps they would! But then, maybe not, since the government wants to keep it's fingers in the pie! Hell, if Woman's Health Clinic X performed abortions, the government would refuse to keep it's promise to have reproductive health care for women in rural areas!

[Enoch the Red]

Regardless of what you think, there is a large...very large...portion of this country that is very rural. Sometimes it's even a hundred miles or more to get to a doctor. Sheesh, add that cost to the others! I don't know about the ubercrowded cities in this country, but out here PP even makes "house calls", coming to a town closer to where some women live. So, I am basing it on "personal" experience that leads to common sense! Not everyone is a city dweller. Some of us prefer the rural areas, even when it means we have to travel for care. You know...out here in Real America!

And there are plenty of locations in Real America there aren't Planned Parenthood centers.

Yet somehow the people in Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Maine, etc... don't seem to be suffering a fate worse than death.

Perhaps they would! But then, maybe not, since the government wants to keep it's fingers in the pie! Hell, if Woman's Health Clinic X performed abortions, the government would refuse to keep it's promise to have reproductive health care for women in rural areas!

And?

[oldmunchkin]

And there are plenty of locations in Real America there aren't Planned Parenthood centers.

Yet somehow the people in Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Maine, etc... don't seem to be suffering a fate worse than death.

And?

In your opinion! You found a map! Yippie! Yeah, it shows the locations of PP clinics. Some of these clinics do clinics in towns that don't qualify for PP offices. Maybe you didn't read some of those comments left for the clinics, but this map seems to be leaning toward getting rid of the clinics. "Death clinic" was the comment left on the Denver site.

And since the government doesn't seem to be interested in women's health issues. They want to defund one of the few organizations that is interested solely in women's issues. All because some locations perform a surgical procedure.

[Enoch the Red]

In your opinion! You found a map! Yippie! Yeah, it shows the locations of PP clinics. Some of these clinics do clinics in towns that don't qualify for PP offices. Maybe you didn't read some of those comments left for the clinics, but this map seems to be leaning toward getting rid of the clinics. "Death clinic" was the comment left on the Denver site.

And since the government doesn't seem to be interested in women's health issues. They want to defund one of the few organizations that is interested solely in women's issues. All because some locations perform a surgical procedure.

And therein lies the problem with relying on governmental funding. It makes you beholden to the whims of government. TANSTAAFL.