There was a rather bizarre bill that came up in the Health and Human Resources Committee this afternoon, one that got lost in the SJR 127 hoopla. HB 1756 "establishes a new methodology for disposition of family planning funds that disburses funds to public women's health services programs before other providers are funded." I'll let Jeff Woods at Pith explain what that means in practical terms:
State House Republicans are desperately trying to piss on the evil Planned Parenthood's leg this session, but they're missing the mark with a bill that just passed the House Health and Human Resources Committee. Aimed only at Nashville and Memphis, where too many poor women are getting pregnant to suit the Republicans, the legislation by Rep. Joey Hensley directs the administration to give priority to the county health departments in distributing federal family planning money. Unfortunately for the wingnuts, those departments don't want the money and have never applied for it. Their staffs aren't large enough to provide the services. Therefore, it'll keep going to Planned Parenthood.
While the Republicans can't, under federal law, directly cut off federal family planning funding under Title X, which is the federal funding at issue under this bill, they can attempt to divert it by trying to send it to other sources, and kill funding for Planned Parenthood that way.
Now, before we go any further, let me make perfectly clear that THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ABORTION. Title X explicitly prohibits federal family planning funding from being used for abortions. The funding goes to other forms of family planning, from contraception to education to gynecological exams. So when Republicans say that this is about using your tax dollars to "fund abortions," they're either confused or outright lying.
As Woods notes though, this bill will have no practical effect, because even if the Metro and Shelby County governments have priority over the funding, they've indicated they don't want to apply for it. But there's something else I find incredibly curious in what the Republicans are doing. Allow me to play Devil's Advocate for a minute.
Isn't the entire conservative movement predicated upon the idea that there should be less government rather than more? Don't conservatives believe that the government should not be in the business of providing services that are not absolutely necessary to keep the (insert one: city/state/country) functioning? Don't conservatives believe that the government is too inefficient to handle such services properly, that the private sector can offer better quality services more efficiently? In the perfect conservative world, should not the government back the hell off when it's clear that a private organization is better-equipped to offer a service, especially if the government agency in question is neither willing nor able to provide the service?
So unless I'm completely misunderstanding what the conservative movement is all about, if you have a bill that tries to place the burden of providing family planning services (note: NOT abortion) on a government agency rather than allowing a private organization that has always provided the service to continue to provide the service, how is that bill not the complete antithesis of conservatism?
3 comments:
Methinks the old labels don't have as much meaning as they used to. The parties seem to be based more on who you hate more these days, and acting in opposition to that hatred, even if it means acting in a radical departure from the foundations of that parties' belief system.
And isn't it just DANDY.
Excellent post, GoldnI. And of course you are aware that while "THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ABORTION" it indeed has EVERYTHING to do with abortion. Facts are silly things where Republicans are concerned and while no tax money goes to fund abortions, "Planned Parenthood" is a wingnut dog whistle which immediately conjures up emotional reactions in the far right. It's like, yell "ACLU" in a crowded GOP fundraiser and what the fur fly.
So of course, this is classic Republicanism: pass a bill that accomplishes absolutely nothing, but leads people to believe you are doing something "pro life."
It's just stupid, and anyone with a lick of sense knows it.
Goldnl, relax the Dems killed the planned parenthood bill in the Goverment Operations Committee, when Mike Turner with an amendment removed Davidson and Shelby Counties from the Bill. Since the Bill only effected those two counties the is dead.
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