On Melissa Harris-Perry's Sunday morning show (8/2/15), the panel discussed the topic of conservatives' war on safe abortions. Robert Traynham said, "As the only male at the table, I'm slightly a little uncomfortable talking about this because obviously this is a women's issue." While I can appreciate his discomfort (not only the sole male in the discussion, but he also described himself as 'pro-life'), he was only partially correct.
All those who are even slightly interested in facts know that only about 3% of the nearly 3 million clients of Planned Parenthood each year visit for abortions. Rational people also are aware that women, especially low-income women in medically under-serviced areas, rely on PP for basic health care. Less well-known is that increasing numbers of men visit these clinics. While researching for this, I came across another Daily Kos post that's relevant:
You May Be Surprised By Which Planned Parenthood's Men's Services Are Also At Risk: http://www.dailykos.com/...But men also losing services is still only part of the travesty from conservatives' war on women's healthcare. The repercussions on the assault on Planned Parenthood are far-reaching and involve more than just health and reproductive choices.
First, medical research:
Fetal tissue has been used in medical research since 1921 in Europe, 1939 in the U.S. to try and treat numerous diseases from diabetes to Parkinson's. Mitch McConnell was among those in Congress who voted to legalize fetal tissue donations after abortions in 1993. The tissue is derived from a number of sources -- "hospitals, nonprofit tissue banks (one of which is funded by the NIH) and in some cases local abortion clinics" ("Fetal Tissue Facts," ASCB.org). While federal law prohibits providers profiting, reasonable compensation to cover acquisition, storage and transfer is permissible. The scam videos which sparked the latest assault on Planned Parenthood show discussions of these allowable, non-profit charges.
Second, the economics of family planning:
Guttmacher Institute:The above is just one of numerous treatises by Guttmacher on the benefits to the health, well-being and economic stability of affordable and accessible contraception. Only the most extreme religionists even begin to try and deny this. Yet the Repubs do just that in their pandering to religionists by supporting the inside-out, Bizarro World version of 'religious liberty' most egregiously epitomized by the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision. The War on Women has the theocratic stench of a Crusade allied with the fragile, yet over-blown ego of the Manly Male.
"Public health experts have long emphasized the benefits to maternal and child health of helping women and couples avoid unintended pregnancy and better time and space the pregnancies they have."
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"Yet, although the preventive health benefits of unintended pregnancy prevention are clear and persuasive—and, indeed, provided the impetus for the new federal requirement that most private health plans cover contraception without copays or deductibles ... the primary reasons American women give for why they use and value contraception are social and economic. Women know that controlling whether and when to have children has positive benefits for their lives."
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"... [C]ontraceptive access significantly contributed to young women’s joining the paid labor force and following professional occupations. That trend was tied to advancements in women’s educational credentials and to the recognition by women and their potential employers that women could pursue a career with far less fear of it being interrupted by an unplanned pregnancy. These changes, in turn, contributed to women’s increased earning power and to a reduction in the long-standing gender gap in pay."
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"These studies also provide evidence that family planning has an impact well beyond education and the workforce. They find that unplanned pregnancy is linked to more conflict and less satisfaction in a relationship, and is associated ultimately with greater odds that a relationship will fail. In addition, there is some evidence that women whose pregnancies are unplanned are more likely to experience physical and sexual abuse. Moreover, women and men who experience an unplanned pregnancy are particularly likely to experience depression, anxiety and a decreased perception of happiness; early childbearing is linked to decreased happiness as well."-- What Women Already Know: Documenting the Social and Economic Benefits of Family Planning: https://www.guttmacher.org/...
Women proved 'Yes We Can' I during WWII, Kinsey showed that sexual enjoyment isn't one-sided, and along came The Pill. With the increased ability of women to control reproduction they were free to challenge the centuries-old idea that it's a Man's World. Puritans' barefoot-and-pregnant dominance and the chauvanists' man-is-the-breadwinner memes went the way of the dinosaurs. Repubs then complicated their own quest to maintain male dominence by introducing voodoo economics and ensuring that women flooded the workforce because families needed the extra income.
Denial of accountability for their fiscal failures combined with the racist attack on 'welfare queens' ensured that Repubs would expand their animosity to the low-income populace. Very little of Repubs' policy decisions make sense to even them without an enemy. Medical clinics serving mostly low-income women and men weave nicely into the idea of the 'takers' who are mooching off a bloated, socialist government ('provide for the general welfare' seems to have been written into conservatives' copy of the Constitution with disappearing ink).
Women with incomes below the poverty level have five times the unintended pregnancies of women at 200% poverty level. Reducing access to affordable birth control helps ensure the number of those welfare moms Repubs can rail against are high. In addition to increased unplanned pregnancies is the risk of low birth weight or defects caused by a lack of pre-natal care and the increased costs associated with extra attention such chikdren need. I continually debate with myself on whether there is a concerted and conscious effort on Repubs' part to ensure the existence of this 'enemy force' or if they are so disconnected from reality that they cannot make the causal connection.
The Catch-22 of the Repubs' favorite welfare 'fix,' the work requirement, should be obvious. Since conservs don't want to cover daycare costs. Without it, even searching for a job is nearly impossible. And so, poverty deepens.
And with poverty comes its companions: hunger, crime, violence ... and more enemies for the Reoubs to rail against.
The costs of defunding Planned Parenthood burden all of society. That makes it much more than just a 'women's issue.'