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It doesn’t matter where you stand on abortion, what your politics are, or how you feel about the job Christopher Christie is doing.
Fact is: We are measured by our compassion for our brothers and sisters. And for many of New Jersey’s working and non-working poor, these clinics provide critical services.
They help catch signs of cancer or other illnesses before it’s too late. They help lower the rate of unintended pregnancies and promote maternal and infant health. And (no surprise) they save taxpayer dollars in the long run – this according to a series of reports recently released by the Guttmacher Institute.
But it’s not really about money, is it?
The state of Indiana tried defunding Planned Parenthood, citing abortions (which, remember, are legal) as the primary reason. It was slapped by none other than Christie’s former employer when the U.S. Justice Department sent a brief to a federal judge asking her to grant the organization’s request for an injunction “because it blocks Medicaid recipients’ freedom to choose the provider of their choice.”
North Carolina’s state legislators have also denied Planned Parenthood both state and federal funding. Wisconsin is cutting family planning dollars, as well. Texas lawmakers are considering a similar move.
Jerry DeMarco Publisher/Editor
In Florida, where nearly $1 million in family planning for local governments has been cut, Gov. Rick Scott and state legislators are allowing a provider to opt out of services – with federal approval first – on “moral or religious grounds.”
In all, nearly a dozen states would allow people to get sick and die because, they say, taxpayers can’t afford it. In any of these cases, litigation would demand a Justice Department response.
It will be interesting to see how this scenario plays out in New Jersey should someone take the legal route to restore what’s been removed. Will the feds once again ride to the rescue?
The nationwide assault on women is in lock-step with pharmacies that refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases — even medications to stop uterine bleeding. Makes no sense, does it? You can’t be against both birth control AND family planning, which includes abortion, at the same time.
Then again, try talking sense to people bound and determined to put an organization out of business – and willing to jeopardize the lives of countless women in the process.
Federal lawmakers, claiming to serve “the will of the people,” have tried and failed to cut off taxpayer funds to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. So the “pro-lifers” are looking to Christie and others to complete the task.
Which begs the question: How many lives will be lost, how many additional abortions will result, without proper screening or counseling aimed at helping women avoid unwanted pregnancies?
Several Democratic lawmakers told nearly 200 protestors outside the Statehouse in Trenton on Monday that they would stand with those in need and not with the millionaires who support Christie’s bid to one day become president.
“[T]his is not about the money. It’s about his ideology,” said Herb Conaway, Jr., M.D. (D-Burlington/Camden). “I work in a clinic and I see the ravages of his budget decisions day in and day out. He has cut funding for AIDS drugs, for women’s health care and for the poor, while giving the state’s wealthiest a tax cut.
“It’s not right for the poor to suffer while the rich go on vacation.”
Looking back over the past year, Assemblywoman Valeri Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) said, “we see scores of women’s health clinics closing, 19,000 families unable to enroll in FamilyCare and now the Governor is proposing to kick 93,000 people off Medicaid.
“With only those families earning less than $5,000 eligible for Medicaid under the Governor’s proposed budget, now more than ever we need to fight for women’s health funding.”
The numbers don’t lie: Last year, family planning health centers in New Jersey provided reproductive and preventive health care to 126,903 women and 9,461 men, breast examinations to 70,506 women, and pap tests to 65,252 women.
Overall, they served 97,129 people who were without health insurance.
More than half of the 50 or so remaining clinics in New Jersey are operated by Planned Parenthood.
Only three offer abortions – and are prohibited from using state money for the procedures.
Still, the clinics find themselves on the brink of extinction, a horrifying prospect.
“Not only is this about standing up for women’s health,” Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D-Bergen) said. “This is about fighting for all of the working families in this state who are falling through the cracks.”
Wagner said she met a woman over the weekend “who lost her husband a few years ago, as well as her job and her health benefits. She now has a job in emergency medical services making $18 an hour with no health benefits. She relies on Planned Parenthood for life-saving services like mammograms and pap smears….These are the people we need to continue fighting for.”
Family planning centers and women’s health clinics are literally a safety net: They provide routine gynecological exams; screening for high blood pressure, anemia and diabetes; breast and cervical cancer screening and education; screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; contraception; HIV testing and counseling; pre-pregnancy counseling and education; pregnancy testing and confirmation and prenatal care.
But that isn’t what Christie’s kind are after, is it?
Christie says state taxpayers shouldn’t support services that those in need can get through federally funded health centers. He neglects to mention, however, how overwhelmed the facilities are by the demands these cuts have already created.
Although the Legislature approved a bill to restore the governor’s funding cuts, he vetoed it. Lawmakers this time say they have enough votes to override, should Christie try monkeying with a new measure that the Senate already has approved.
I would love if one of our female lawmakers – say, Bergen County’s own Loretta Weinberg – looked the governor dead in the eye and said, “Go ahead. Try it.”
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