Wisconsin Cuts Funding, Four Planned Parenthood Clinics Closing
In the vernacular of Scott Walker's administration, government is all about the customers.
School choice? Expand it, to serve the parents.
Entrepreneurs? Here's $25 million for venture capitalists to pass around.
Truckers and commuters? Build more roads. Sell off public assets to come up with the money if need be, but customers first!
Anglers and hunters? Government is here to help. Heck, you don't have to waste your time and money driving downtown to get yourself a license anymore, the agency says:
To purchase a license online, use theBut female customers, particularly those in rural areas where there are fewer health-care options, particularly for lower-income women who need medical tests and procedures for, say, cancer?(cart icon) in the "Buy Online" column to go to our Wisconsin Licensing Services Center, for hunting and fishing sales. For online purchases, the "Delivery Method" column indicates how you receive your license: by printing
your license using your home computer or receiving the license via mail
.
Well, hold on, missy. Don't get all dependent on Big Government.
Who said it's the state's job to keep supporting a long-standing Planned Parenthood clinic in your small community.
The centers in Beaver Dam, Johnson Creek, Chippewa Falls and Shawano don't get enough private funding to stay financially viable without the state support, which the Legislature eliminated in the 2011-'13 state budget. The locations are the only reproductive health care providers in their communities, officials said during a conference call from Madison.Out-of-state media takes note of our Governor's compassionate conservatism:
“Women are going to have to drive even longer distances just to get basic health care like wellness exams, cancer screenings and birth control,” said Deb Bonilla, vice president of patient services for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. “We are doing all we can to ensure that women get the care they need, but in some instances the resulting barriers to care will make health care access very difficult.”
9 comments:
What war on women?
Wisconsin shouldn't be in the abortion business, nor should they be supporting organizations that promote them either.
Shameful! And thanks to James for his great work and Zombie RM for his comments. Always appreciated!
Yes, RD, and we continue to wait patiently for the private sector to step up and build, fund and run an alternative to Planned Parenthood that's acceptable to Godfearing Wisconsinites and their out-of-state pals.
We're waiting... millions available to fund campaigns against women, but moths fly out of the changepurse when a pap smear might save a life.
Welcome, Betsy.
As has been pointed out incessantly, and just as commonly ignored on the right, Planned Parenthood provides far more than abortion, or even contraceptive, services. the documented fact is that abortion is only 3% of the services PP provides. Closing these facilities will prevent women from being able to access vital health care services.
The reality is that Planned Parenthood has five million visitors each year. The majority of American women rely on them for health care at some point in their lives.
But go ahead, Republicans. You just go on with your anti-female agenda.
Oddly enough, if there's one place that needs super-low cost contraception and help with STDs it's certainly Chippewa Falls. Historically, CF has lead the state (and perhaps beyond) in teen/very young adult pregnancies and unplanned, un-wed childbearing. So much that candidate Kreitlow's teen mother daughter didn't really raise an eyebrow during his first campaign. Though she was not at all representative of the kinds of lifestyles and healthcare that the majority of young mothers and children face there. Families amongst the lower class in CF regularly consist of kids from more than one father. Too many are conceived while people drinking, babies being the last thing in their plans at the time. The past several years had seen a reduction in this, but we can expect it to skyrocket again I suppose. Also not helping, some years back the County Board decimated the Human Services mental health offerings. Services that were quite literally the rope from which numerous (many young mothers) people were clinging. You'd think locals would welcome the help Planned Parenthood offered, but not so much. Just as one local example, let's look at Tom Sykora, former assemblyman and backbone of the county Republicans. Tom is in the Chamber, Right to Life, the Catholic Church, and a slew of other groups. He also has made piles of money off of the local dirt-poor renters WHO GET RENT SUBSIDIES. Yes, Tom has made tons of money specializing in renting to the poor, the elderly, the disabled, the Hmong. People who often survive courtesy of the "socialist government programs" that Tom does not believe in. Even seeing that socialist money paying the rent in his units, it's still not worth believing in. And don't imagine a unit or two, he owns a behemoth Poor House of high-turnover, shabbily constructed apartments for poor people - right across the street from the Catholic Church. And with the Republican Party offices right in the basement, right under all the po' copulatin' folk for whom he has contempt. You can't make this kind of stuff up. 912 Pearl Street, you can see the big ugly mother in Google maps. Huge, rundown and nasty.
So I guess it's only logical that he'd want to work to keep the low-income birth rates up, the status quo has worked out pretty well for him.
Anyways, it was supremely frustrating to get the news that Planned Parenthood will be leaving a community of truly highest need (ostensibly the very reason for their organization in the first place is to give services to those MOST in need, with the very FEWEST other options i.e. Chippewa Falls WI), but I also understand the unrelenting difficulty they must have had in struggling with the "local culture". Lack of local funding? No doubt. Too bad there is no lack of Republican "Morality" of the type personified by Mr. Sykora.
The poor aren't really suffering, they're not even really human, they're simply a living conduit chosen by God to funnel Wealth into the hands of the Righteous. May they go forth (preferably with a six pack) and multiply. And then sign my crappy lease.
BTW - Isn't it often stated (or misstated in this case) the the Federal gov't only pays a fraction of the operating expenses for PP?
If only a small % is going away, surely they should be able to find other financial avenues to keep these clinics open.
What IS misstated, is that public funding pays for abortions. The Hyde amendment doesn't allow that, and Planned Parenthood doesn't do it.
Nothing takes the place of good parenting; unless Uncle Sam is you guardian.
Post a Comment