In yet another bout of politics-of-the-absurd by the leaders of the Congressional OB-GYN (Obnoxious Biblical Gynoticians), Ted Cruz and 18 other GOP Congressional fascists had threatened to shut down the federal government if Planned Parenthood were not defunded. The main reason for attacking Planned Parenthood — and simultaneously, the entire federal government, is because Planned Parenthood carries out abortions, a medical procedure which happens to be legal in the United States.

Thankfully, the Democrats earned their paychecks on August 3, 2015, and were able to ensure that the misinformed and misguided Republicans did not get the 60 votes needed to further the bill.

The scope to which the Republicans are willing to hurt and even endanger Americans for the sake of their Bible-thumping propaganda is practically Orwellian. Planned Parenthood, on the other hand, actually helps Americans: 2.7 million Americans every year.

The services Planned Parenthood provides helps women and men. I am sure many of these women could not afford insurance prior to Obamacare, another program the GOP has worked tirelessly to destroy. And perhaps many of them still cannot afford insurance even with Obamacare creating a more fair marketplace; women such as myself still cannot afford monthly premiums. Some women still cannot get birth control through their employer. Some teenage girls and women may need access to information on family planning because they went to high schools that taught abstinence-only Sex Education. Or maybe a scared 18 year-old girl doesn’t want a pregnancy test logged on her parents’ insurance file, so she goes to Planned Parenthood instead in order to have true confidentiality.

Women turn to Planned Parenthood to have various health screenings for their sexual and/or overall health, with only three per cent of procedures being abortions — and none of the abortions is paid for with taxpayer money. However, the GOP is more concerned with fact-twisting and political grandstanding in order to maintain its religious pandering and gain campaign dollars from its misogynist party-base. The Republicans spend as much time trying to turn the clock back 100 years on women’s autonomy and women’s rights as they do obstructing Obama and much-needed legislation that actually helps the country.

The irony is not lost that these men are obstructing women’s basic human right to choose the course of our lives. If it were men’s sexual health that were affected and if it were primarily men who needed Planned Parenthood’s services, NONE of this would be an issue in our society. Congress would never come between a man and his right to do what he wants with his reproductive organs … just as there are no all-female Congressional committees that determine if men can have access to condoms or whether vasectomies should be legal or not.

Another irony, for me, is that I began ArousedWoman three years ago because of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation and the Susan G. Komen fiasco of pulling funding from Planned Parenthood, while during the same timeframe Congress embarrassed itself with yet another display of its #WarOnWomen to deny us our right to birth control and our right to be heard on matters that concern our autonomy of our bodies and sexual health.

Back to the present, here we are again with another session of Congress wasting time and resources to make women slaves to male, Christian authoritarians — a process that actually does use up taxpayers’ dollars. We won this round, but the GOP continues to ramp up its efforts at the national and state levels to undo women’s right to body autonomy.

These misogynist, patriarchal gynoticians MUST be voted out of power.

trish

 

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