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Planned Parenthood is one of the socially conservative set’s favorite targets. Ted Cruz tried to use PP as a weapon to discredit the Republican credentials of Marco Rubio—despite the fact that both men have voted to defund the organization that exists to provide reproductive health care for women. And Ohio Governor John Kasich did his “I wanna be a presidential candidate!” due diligence earlier this year by signing a bill that would block government funds to Planned Parenthood in his state.
In a somewhat hilarious twist, the actual future GOP nominee, Donald Trump, has been the one to speak out in defense of Planned Parenthood! At one press event in February he said, “Planned Parenthood has done very good work for many, many—for millions of women… I’m a conservative, but I’m a common-sense conservative.” And then later on Meet The Press he defended the organization again by saying, “I have many, many friends who are women who understand Planned Parenthood better than you or I will ever understand it. And they do some very good work. Cervical cancer, lots of women’s issue, women’s health issues are taken care of.”
Hey, even a broken clock is wrong twice a day! (And before you get all excited, Trump did also manage to say that as president he would not fund Planned Parenthood if “it’s doing the abortion.”) But what are these services he speaks of? These “women’s health issues” that Planned Parenthood is addressing? Because according to pro-life camps, the government is just throwing money at “the nation’s biggest abortion conglomerate.”
The video above outlines how much funding Planned Parenthood actually receives and where the money comes from. It also details some of the other services the organization provides—and by other we mean the “vast majority of”—like cancer screenings and contraception services. So if conservative voters really don’t care that much, which they proved by voting for the candidate who speaks out in defense of Planned Parenthood (mostly), and liberals are on board with the pro-choice/pro-affordable reproductive care movement, then why the hell are even still fighting about this?
From where we’re sitting it seems like we should just chuck “defund Planned Parenthood” in a pile with the “the Benghazi e mails” and set the whole thing on fire. Maybe then we could spend the rest of the presidential election season talking about things that resemble actual issues intead of policy smokescreens, and women could keep their access to cervical cancer tests. Just a thought.
Music: Marta by il:lo
Source: Planned Parenthood (https://issuu.com/actionfund/docs/annual_report_final_proof_12.16.14_/0)
Written and Produced by Gabriel Reilich
Graphics by Jake Infusino
