Glaucon

Conservatives are not stupid.

1. Planned Parenthood is profiting off the illegal sale of “body parts.” It’s the lie that started it all and which conservative media hopes to make true by constant repetition. It’s also 100% false. The Center for Medical Progress has released four videos so far and not one contains a shred of evidence proving the sale of fetal tissue. Every video documents evidence that fetal tissue from a******ns are being donated to medical research — which is perfectly legal. The money being discussed is reimbursement for the costs and t***sportation, and nothing more. The accusation that Planned Parenthood is profiting off a******n or contraception is silly. Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization.

2. Fetal tissue research is wrong! Ask your conservative relative if he would prefer the fetal tissue to be thrown in the trash, since that is the only alternative. While he ponders that, point out that fetal tissue research has been used to develop v*****es and other life-saving treatments, and is currently being used to develop treatments for Parkinson’s disease. Many of the Republicans who are trying to defund Planned Parenthood actually v**ed for the use of fetal tissue in medical research. If the issue were really fetal tissue research, wouldn’t the smart move be to simply ban that? Instead, Republicans are offering a bill that wouldn’t do anything to stop fetal tissue research but would stop millions of patients from getting affordable contraception. Ask your relative how, exactly, cutting women off from contraception services does a damn thing to address his newfound belief that fetal tissue research is wrong.

3. All of this sounds d********g, therefore it must be wrong. Your relative will probably note that he finds the process of a******n gross, especially since “gross” has been a popular argument among actual politicians like John Boehner and Bobby Jindal. Point out that most medical procedures are gross, but no one is trying to ban heart surgery on the grounds that it’s hard to look at. More to the point, there’s nothing new about this argument. Anti-choicers have been waving around signs showing fetal body parts for over 40 years now, and it hasn’t changed anything. It might also help to point out to your relative that nearly 9 in 10 a******ns happen in the first 12 weeks, which means it’s embryos, not fetuses, being removed, and they range from microscopic to about half an ounce in size. Most a******ns resemble little more than a very heavy period.

4. Tone! Now your relative’s back is against the wall, with all the factual claims being disproved. He will probably shift to claiming that the real problem is the doctors in these videos were insufficiently reverent when speaking to people they believed were fellow medical professionals about their work. Agree with your relative that the doctors are blunt and do avoid euphemism, speaking casually about procedures and body parts in a way you or I may not be used to. But this doesn’t mean the doctors speak to their patients this way. Remind your relative that doctors have to do things like dissect dead bodies and study gross diseases. It’s only natural that they start to think of these things in blunt, objective terms. Point out that if we are going to ban medical care in every case where doctors speak bluntly to each other, we would have to ban every kind of medical care, not just a******n.

5. Taxpayer-funded a******ns! Multiple politicians and media outlets have been invoking, in the wake of this f**e scandal, the idea that “taxpayer funded a******ns” are taking place at Planned Parenthood and this means the organization should be defunded. This is a lie, full stop. The Hyde Amendment, which was passed in 1976, prevents federal money from funding a******n.

At this point, your relative will start making noises about how money is “fungible.” He is trying to claim that federal funding for contraception “frees up” money for Planned Parenthood to spend on a******n. Tell him that doesn’t make sense, because a******n patients at Planned Parenthood pay for their a******ns. Even if all federal money dried up tomorrow, that would only raise the price of contraception, not a******n.

While he ponders that, point out that a conservative estimate suggests Planned Parenthood’s Title X funding alone prevents about 125,000 a******ns a year. That’s not even counting the Medicaid funding, which is 75 percent of Planned Parenthood’s funding. If you don’t like a******n, you want Planned Parenthood to have more money to prevent it, instead of cutting its funding.

6. Just go to a community health center. Some politicians like Rand Paul and Joni Ernst are trying to float the “reasonable” argument that Planned Parenthood is too much of a hassle and we should just let it go and tell women to go to community health centers instead. Anyone who says this has never actually been to a community health center, or he would know that your average one is overstretched as it is, and dumping millions of extra gynecological patients on them is unfair.

As MSNBC reported, Planned Parenthood has shorter wait times and more on-the-spot service for family planning than community health centers. To go to a community health center, you have to take many hours off work to wait a lengthy amount of time at an overcrowded clinic and then to go find a pharmacy to fill your prescription. The same trip might only be an hour at Planned Parenthood, which can fill your prescription on the spot. For working-class women who can’t afford to take a day off work to get birth control pills, Planned Parenthood is the only viable option.

Unsurprisingly, the one state, Texas, that has cut off Planned Parenthood funding, found that patients were not able just to switch to community health centers. They may not have one in their community, the local one may not be able to take on more patients, or they may not be able to take off work that long. Subsequently, nearly 20,000 women who used to get Planned Parenthood services just went without any care at all. The state saw an estimated 24,000 more unintended pregnancies in the first two years of the cuts.

These conservative talking points are easy to debunk, but it’s also important not to get so much in the weeds that you forget the larger point: The assault on Planned Parenthood is not about the videos at all, but a larger war on women being waged by conservatives. It’s all tied up in conservative efforts to push abstinence-only education, to fight Obamacare’s contraception coverage, to shut down a******n and family planning clinics, and even to halt IUD programs that are known to reduce teen pregnancy. The videos are just a pretense. The real goal is to make it harder for women—especially low-income women — to have happy, healthy sex lives.

mwdegutis Loc: Illinois

You lost me and I stopped when your referred to a baby as "fetal tissue."

Kevyn

Let's see if I can set you straight, there is no such thing as a baby until birth, there are no unborn babies and never have been. During different stages after conception there ar embryos and feteus but no babies until birth. To make it more clear there are eggs and then chickens, the egg is not a chicken. The same is true of catapillers and butterfly's, tadpole and frogs. Our language is specific to avoid confusion, your misuse of our language is obviously an attempt to muddy the waters.

PoppaGringo Loc: Muslim City, Mexifornia, B.R.

This whole post is so filled with outright lies I couldn't read it in its entirety, but then, being familiar with the poster, I should have known, and expected, that before opening the thread.

It reads like a well thought out piece of propaganda by one of PP's expensive PR firms engaged primarily in an attempt to refute the veracity of the video's released to the public.

JMHO Loc: Utah

That's your invalid unproven opinion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BTW, your post is pure bulls**t...but, then that is all you post anyway...nothing new.

jelun

This entry posits perfectly the facts and how they are twisted to create false talking points. But hey! we are dealing with people who have convinced themselves through viewing the same type of source that the POTUS and FLOTUS are a same sex couple who adopted their children.
Not that it would be anyone's business if that were the case.

Funniest part to me is that the number of these folks who bothered to v**e last time around DID V**E for a guy who made money from processing the remains of a******n materials.
:XD:

mwdegutis Loc: Illinois

Let’s focus on the real world implications of a******n and fetal “personhood.”

Amoebas are single-celled organisms. Cells are the building blocks for all life forms. "Single-celled" means that amoebas have only one cell for their entire body. Amoebas, like humans, are considered life forms: KINGDOM: Protist – PHYLUM: Protozoa – CLASS: Rhizopoda – ORDER: Amoebida – FAMILY: Amoebidae – GENUS: Amoeba – SPECIES: Amoeba (Many species).

Every human being begins life as a single cell (like the amoeba), formed when the father's sperm fertilizes the mother's egg. When fertilization is completed and the nuclei of egg and sperm have combined, a new being – as in human – comes into existence. So therefore, life, whether it’s human or amoeba, begins when the father's sperm fertilizes the mother's egg or the amoeba splits in two. In the case of a human being, the conclusion can therefore be made that a human being’s life begins at conception.

Under U.S. federal law, murder is the unlawful k*****g of a human being with malice aforethought – the "premeditation" or "predetermination" (with malice) that can be expressed (intent to k**l) or implied. Implied malice is proven by acts that involve reckless indifference to human life or in a death that occurs during the commission of certain felonies (the felony murder rule). The exact terms of the felony murder vary tremendously from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Tying these two concepts together, any reasonable person can conclude that a******n is murder, with murder being the unlawful k*****g of a human being – whose life was just proven to begin at conception – with implied malice being proven by acts that involve reckless indifference to human life.

The prosecution rests its case.

bdamage Loc: My Bunker

Set yourself straight N**i-genocidist!

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

Poppa, it would go a long way in supporting your position if you would call out the specific lies and refute them with facts.
Just sayin'.

JMHO Loc: Utah

You're incapable of looking them up? Not hard to do. Just sayin'

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

Science and most thinking people disagree with your thesis. A fertilized egg might represent the POTENTIAL to become a human being, but it is no more that than a yeast-infused lump of dough is a loaf of bread. I realize this logic will be unappealing to many on this emotional issue, but I think it does a good job of explaining.

jelun

And on and on it goes... people who appreciate facts and those who make up their own.
Why bother?

mwdegutis Loc: Illinois

I guess I'm not a thinking person. So sorry to insult your far superior intellect.

JMHO Loc: Utah

Bulls**t! That is an unproven opinion!!!!! No evidence to prove that!!! Libtard thinking and opinion!

Liberty Tree

If that is so why do states refer to him/her as an unborn child in laws making it a crime to cause harm or death during a criminal act. Having all body parts, a heart beat, brain waves, feeling of pain make him/her a baby whether in the womb or not. Your attempt at spin to try and absolve yourself is pathetic.