Posted on 04/04/2011 7:11:52 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
"An Open Letter to Fellow Conservatives"
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives--urged on by conservatives opposed to abortion--has voted to defund Planned Parenthood. On this issue, Republicans and conservatives are dead wrong.
My grandmother was a friend and supporter of Margaret Sanger, one of America's earliest, most effective advocates of birth control.
I met Sanger several times before her death in 1966 and was impressed b y her intellect and her commitment to many issues, not the least of which was enabling every woman to be "the absolute mistress of her own body" as she put it.
I didn't agree with everything the formidable Mrs. Sanger espoused. Yet I respected her dedication to making health-care and birth-control services available to all Americans, especially to those with low incomes, no insurance and no other recourse to medicall services.
And I admired her fearless, relentless readiness to stand up for what she believed, despite decades of angry, mean-sprited, often hypocritical attacks on her ideas and her character.
So I am aggravatged by the continuing attacks on Sanger and her primary legacy, the Planned Parenthood network that still serves so many Americans today.
Now the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives--urged on by conservatives opposed to abortion--has voted to defund Planned Parenthood.
On this issue, Republicans and conservatives are dead wrong.
Abortions are a minor aspect of Planned Parenthood's mission to provide reproductive health care, education, and other services to Americans, regardless of income.
More than 90 percent of its work focuses on preventive care, including preventing unintended pregnancies that often lead to unwanted, neglected and abused children.
In Pittsburgh and across America, Planned Parenthood offices help people to make better decisions about whether to have children. They help to arrance adoptions for women or couples unable to raise a child but unwilling to end a pregnancy.
Many of their clients are poor Americans who cannot afford birth-control measures that can cost $50 a month or more.
Of the 10,000 to 12,000 people who use local Planned Parenthood services, about 20 percent are teenagers, half are ages 20 to 30 and the rest are older than 30.
Of course, no one wants tenneagers to get pregnant. Yet far too many do--and they need reliable, honest advice about what to do next. For many of them, Planned Parenthood is the only reliable source of that advices. For many others, Planned Parenthood is the only safe, reliable source of counseling to avoid getting pregnant in the first places.
If not for Maragaret Sanger's vision and bravery, many poor Americans would have no place to turn for birth-control measures and counseling or for other health-care services.
To take that away makes on sense.
Dick Scaife
(Mr. Scaife is chairman of Trib Total Meida Inc., parent company of hte Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and its family of publications. Note: this op-ed was originally published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
Paid for by Republicans for Planned Parenthood, a project of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Chastity is another way for a woman to be “mistress of her own body”. Oddly enough, I can’t remember Margaret Sanger ever saying anything good about that method of female autonomy. /s
Excellent post.
Thank you.
Then why do you believe that a state should be allowed to enact laws saying that a person can be killed arbitrarily? Where do you find this in the Constitution?
I also believe it is a waste of time and money fighting this on the national scale, as it has been since roe vs wade..this is why the feds should be out of it entirely..
Newsflash for you it already is a federal issue, the ONLY WAY anything is done to end abortion is if the Supreme Court rules or if a constitutional amendment declares the unborn to be people. You can say all day long that it should be a state issue, but first you must get the federal government to agree.
are you saying it is better to have it legal in all states than illegal in some?
I'm saying the entire issue is red herring used by pro-aborts to appear pro-life.
“this so-called nonprofit organization”.
Is like most nonprofits, somewhere some one is making lots and using the tax laws to their advantage, some times for good, others like this for the devils work.
Yep, I remember. There was a wealth of things to criticize him about too, it would have been a target rich environment for her.
I really don't care if you call yourself pro-abort or pro-choice, the result is the same.
All you are saying is something to the effect of, "I am personally opposed to abortion, but do not think I have the right to impose my values on states."
Those who will admit to this obvious fact, and then allow the states to kill the persons in question anyway, are, in fact, worse than Justice Harry Blackmun, the author of the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade.
After all, even he admitted that if the fetus is a person, they are "OF COURSE" protected specifically by the Constitution.
"The appellee and certain amici argue that the fetus is a 'person' within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this, they outline at length and in detail the well known facts of fetal development. If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment."-- Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Roe vs. Wade, 1973
He dehumanized them, then said go ahead and kill them.
Y'all don't even bother with the fig leaf.
NO.......what you are saying is if abortion cannot be overturn on the federal level, then it should not be overturned at all...it is YOU, and the people who think like you, that will take no victory, or go down no road other than the one you feel is correct...that is why this will never be overturned..you are like the jessie jacksons of the world, and probably have a stake in keeping things just the way they are.....it is your morally superior way of thinking that keeps the abortion mills in business, at least I offer a way to shut some of them down, yet you refuse to see this.......I am through with you, and anyone like you
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You're not making a lot of sense here. How does your "battle plan" result in all states banning abortion? Imho, all it does is attempt to ban abortion in some states, which is essentially meaningless. It's accepting defeat.
You’re not making any sense here at all.
No, what I am saying is that the ONLY WAY abortion can be overturned is at the federal level. Either SCOTUS has to rule or there has to be a constitutional amendment.
There are "trigger laws" already on the books in some states, they are invalid because of Roe v. Wade.
YOU, and the people who think like you, that will take no victory, or go down no road other than the one you feel is correct.
Correct, I do not consider allowing states to legalize murder a victory.
that is why this will never be overturned..you are like the jessie jacksons of the world, and probably have a stake in keeping things just the way they are..
Why don't you put down the bong, the effects have been escalating throughout the day.
it is your morally superior way of thinking that keeps the abortion mills in business, at least I offer a way to shut some of them down, yet you refuse to see this.
You haven't offered ANYTHING other then a method for libertarians to say, "See? We tried." All the while a baby is murdered every 24 seconds.
You stated that you believe states should have the right to allow or disallow abortion. That is a pro-abortion stance. At least own up to what you’re advocating, even if you don’t believe in God, The Ten Commandments, or any moral compass whatsoever. Be honest, just for the hell of it.
By the way, words mean things, and the word "unalienable" is no exception:
unalienable:
adj.
incapable of being repudiated or transferred to another; "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights"
Nowhere to turn for birth control? Condoms are on sale everywhere, fercryinoutloud.
What a pack of lies in this article.
Planned Parenthood sets up their abortion mills in black and hispanic neighborhoods. Margaret Sanger would be so damn proud.
Margaret Sanger's character was impugned during her lifetime and deservedly so. Today, in our morally deplete society she's hailed a hero.
A central part of what planned parenthood does is all about abortion. The rest of their "services" are just excuses and cover for their continued existence.
Richard Scaiffe is NO conservative. I'm actually relieved. I'd thought a REAL conservative had penned this piece, and was promoting the idea as some sort of tactic.
in the last 38 years only ONE state introduced legislation to make abortion illegal and that legislation failed. So I don’t know how you formed an opinion about how abortion can be repealed by the states rather than with a federal human life amendment. ONE state in 38 years.
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