GOP's War on Women Careens Onward; Obama Administration Throws Up Roadblocks

Republicans are trying to climb inside your uterus again.

During the last budget showdown, the Republicans showed America its battle-plan for the War on Women: the GOP is trying like hell to defund Planned Parenthood.  At the time, I wrote the following:

I have (or at least I think I have) avoided coming right out and stating that Republicans hate women. It seemed to be such a gross and unfair generalization.

But with each passing day, as they attempt to redefine “rape” and “rape victim”; as they attempt to pass legislation that permits Dr. Conscientious Objector to refuse to perform emergency abortion services and to also not require hospitals to transfer women to a facility that will provide such services (thus, quite literally, leaving women to die); as they attempt to redefine justifiable homicide such that the murder of any person threatening the life of a fetus becomes justified (does this include the murder of the mother herself? Can a scorned boyfriend or husband decide to murder his girlfriend or wife because he suspects that she intends to make a choice about her body and whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term?), it becomes more and more difficult for me to avoid stating the obvious:

REPUBLICANS.HATE.WOMEN.

(read the rest)

I wasn’t wrong.

Republicans are at it again: This time, in a calculated political attack, they have requested financial records from Planned Parenthood Federation for America just to make sure that it isn’t violating the Hyde Amendment and using funds for abortion:

Last week, the Oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), sent a letter to Planned Parenthood requesting around twelve years of financial documents as part of an investigation into whether the women’s health organization is misusing its federal funds.

“The committee has questions about the policies in place and actions undertaken by PPFA and its affiliates relating to its use of federal funding and its compliance with federal restrictions on the funding of abortions,” Stearns said in the letter.

Under the Hyde Amendment, federal funds cannot be used for abortions, and the organization submits to yearly audits to that end. But the committee’s requests are still aimed at making sure Planned Parenthood isn’t violating this law, asking for internal audits of how the organization spent its federal funds between 1998-2010, and how “segregation between family planning and abortion services is accomplished.”

You may recall during the April budget showdown, President Obama refused to make any cuts to Planned Parenthood. Boehner asked for cuts; Obama said “nope, zero.” (I wrote about the end result of the April budget showdown here.)

You may also recall that Planned Parenthoods in New Hampshire were forced to stop providing contraceptives to women because the all-Republican organization which awards the contracts required for Planned Parenthood to operate (called the Executive Council), refused to award the requisite contract to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England because Planned Parenthood performs abortions — even though, contrary to John Kyl’s patently false claims which were “not intended to be a factual statement”, abortions comprise a small percentage of services offered by Planned Parenthood, and no tax dollars are use for abortions because the Hyde Amendment prohibits it (I wrote about the New Hampshire Planned Parenthood showdown here).

There is, however, some good news from the warfront: Just a few weeks ago, the Obama Administration contracted with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England to provide family planning services in New Hampshire, thus ending a crisis faced by low-income women (and men).  In short, women of New Hampshire will now be able to obtain contraceptives and cancer screenings:

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England says the federal government is contracting it for family planning services in New Hampshire that lost funding when the Executive Council decided not to rehire the organization.

State health officials had been searching for other providers who could offer family planning services — including contraception and cancer screenings — after the all-Republican council voted 3-2 in June against renewing a contract with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

Planned Parenthood said Tuesday that the award recognizes that it is “an essential and established part of the health care infrastructure in New Hampshire, serving almost 16,000 women, men and teens through health centers in Claremont, Derry, Exeter, Keene, Manchester and West Lebanon.”

I’m going to belabor this point: the Obama Administration stepped up to protect women’s health in New Hampshire from Republican incursion. Now consider, for a moment, what President Perry or Romney would do.

It’s a big deal.

[via Talking Points Memo]