Ryan Sponsored Abortion Bill That Would Make Romney's Kids Criminals | Mother Jones

What isn’t so well known about Ryan’s record, though, is that one piece of legislation he supported is so extreme that it would have turned Romney’s children into criminals.

The Sanctity of Human Life Act, which Ryan co-sponsored, would have enshrined the notion that life begins at fertilization in federal law, thus criminalizing in vitro fertilization—the process of creating an embryo outside of a woman’s womb. In IVF, doctors typically create multiple embryos and then only implant the healthiest ones in the woman. Some of them stick and become babies, and some don’t. The embryos that don’t make it to the womb are either frozen for later use or destroyed. The Sanctity of Human Life Act, if passed, would make all those embryos “people” in the legal sense, so if they aren’t used or don’t become babies after being implanted, they would essentially become murder victims under the law.

[…]

In May, Romney’s son Tagg became father of twin boys thanks to help from IVF and a surrogate mother. Tagg’s son Jonathan was also produced this way. Two of Tagg’s brothers reportedly have struggled with infertility issues and resorted to IVF as well. It’s hard to imagine that Romney will score any points with voters by tapping a running mate whose anti-abortion views are so extreme that Romney’s own kids can’t live with them.

Ryan’s position on IVF might give President Obama an opening for attack: While Romney’s running mate has advocated criminalizing a procedure that has brought untold joy to about 3 million families over the past three decades, Democrats might be able to claim credit for making advanced infertility treatments available to the vast majority of Americans who can’t afford them. Currently, most health insurance plans don’t cover infertility treatment, so IVF and other advanced baby-making technology is mostly available to rich people—like the Romney boys.

On Contraception, Republicans, and Federal Funding

cognitivedissonance:

Rebloggable by request:

I’m visiting my dad and he’s insisting Obama starting the federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Help!

 Anonymous

Meg at Cognitive Dissonance:

Nope. Thank this guy:

That would be Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States. Planned Parenthood’s federal funding was started by Nixon under Title X. Here’s his statement on it:

“I called for a national commitment to provide adequate family planning services within the next 5 years to all those who want them but cannot afford them. It was clear that the domestic family planning services supported by the Federal Government were not adequate to provide information and services to all who want them on a voluntary basis.

To implement this national commitment, I asked for expanded research in contraceptive development and the behavioral sciences, reorganization of family planning service activities within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and legislation which would help the Department to implement this important program by providing broader and more precise legislative authority and a clearer source of financial support. The National Center for Family Planning Services was established in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare shortly after my message.

The bill before me today, the “Family Planning Services and Population Research Act of 1970,” completes the legislation I requested in my message on population. This measure provides for expanded research, training of manpower, and increased family planning services. In addition, it provides for the development of family planning and population growth information and education.

It is noteworthy that this landmark legislation on family planning and population has had strong bipartisan support.”

See, back in the day, the Republican Party was much less against contraception and family planning than they are now. Let me repeat that: Republicans in 1970 were more supportive of welfare, contraception, and access to both than they are now. Tell your dad “citation needed, bro.”

Bonus points! Here’s why public funding of contraception is important from the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute:

• Publicly funded family planning services help women to avoid pregnancies they do not want and to plan pregnancies they do. In 2006, these services helped women avoid 1.94 million unintended pregnancies, which would likely have resulted in about 860,000 unintended births and 810,000 abortions.

• Contraceptive services provided at publicly funded clinics helped prevent 1.48 million of these unintended pregnancies; the remaining 450,000 unintended pregnancies were prevented among Medicaid enrollees who received publicly funded contraceptive services from private physicians.

• Without publicly funded family planning services, the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions occurring in the United States would be nearly two-thirds higher among women overall and among teens; the number of unintended pregnancies among poor women would nearly double.

• Contraceptive services provided at Title X-supported centers helped prevent 973,000 unintended pregnancies in 2008, which would likely have resulted in 432,600 unintended births and 406,200 abortions.

• The services provided at publicly funded clinics saved the federal and state governments an estimated $5.1 billion in 2008; services provided at Title X–supported clinics accounted for $3.4 billion of that total.

• In other words, nationally, every $1.00 invested in helping women avoid pregnancies they did not want to have saved $3.74 in Medicaid expenditures that otherwise would have been needed.

Success!

Tell your dad to email me. He sounds interesting.

Cheers,

Meg

(via letfreedomlulz)

Source: cognitivedissonance

Susan G. Komen

racismschool:

As a lifelong supporter of the Komen foundation, I was heart broken to find that they were no longer going to support Planned Parenthood. Then, after the backlash, when (seemingly) every media outlet told us that the Komen foundation had reversed it’s decision, I couldn’t help but to be skeptical. I’ve been through this before. Not done my homework and gone along thinking that I was supporting a good cause. I’ve been burned a number of times. I have no one to blame but myself. Because of my past, I make an effort to pay closer attention to what is being said vs. what is being done. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Especially when talking about corporations.

Some of you may be wondering why I am talking about the Komen/Planned Parenthood situation on a blog about racism relations. It’s because of the affects the money has and more specifically, who is affected.

What I found was that 170,000 women would be affected by the defunding by the Koman Foundation. That number may not even sound that big to some of you. The problem is that the 170,000 women affected are LOW INCOME WOMAN. Under this umbrella of “Low income women” over 80% are women of color. That matters.

The irritating fact that I still wonder if people are aware of is that any money that came from Susan G. Koman was ear marked for breast cancer related treatments. Be it mammograms, early detection procedures and even help for actual cancer patients. So even more specifically, the people affected would be 170,000 low income women looking for breast cancer related treatments.

Because of this, no matter what their PR Department says, I can not believe that the decision to end funding wasn’t a political one. This is a big problem for me. Yes, politics will often play a role but when we are talking about breast cancer, something that affects women (and men) no matter their race, and you decide to do something that will have the opposite affect of what your foundation is claiming it’s there for, having the biggest affect on a very specific group, I can not support it. 

After the reports of the Komen Foundation reversing their decision, I couldn’t help but hold back on my relief. My heart was broken. I haven’t just been a life long supporter. The Komen Foundation has been a part of my life. First when someone close to me was diagnosed with breast cancer but then through the charity. I was a “Walk for the Cure” girl, a financial donator, a fund-raiser and spent time volunteering at different events. 

When I tell you my heart was broken, I am not joking.

Then, while everyone was rejoicing over the reversal. I had my doubts. Even if they had reversed their decision, their original claim was that they weren’t going to work with any organization that was “Under investigation” but…they didn’t pull support for Bank of America? Planned Parenthood was targeted. That makes be think that even if they reverse they original idea, they will find another way to avoid helping Planned Parenthood.

I didn’t have much time to consider this because I quickly came across an article stating that the reversal may not have actually been a reversal at all. I have to keep my distance. Until I am sure that they are doing right by ALL women, I can’t support them. None of this is to say that you shouldn’t support them. They still are doing great work in an effort to find a cure. It’s just that for me, the things that they now seem to stand for, are things I can not support. 

This debacle did however cause me to look for other breast cancer support outlets and I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. There are some really wonderful organizations out there. For now, I am putting all of my support behind Planned Parenthood. This will not be the last we see of them being targeted and I think over the next year, especially as it get’s closer to the election, they will be a HUGE target.

No matter how you feel about abortion, please keep in mind that abortion is less than 4% of what Planned Parenthood does. In addition, most OBGYNs also preform abortions so targeting Planned Parenthood is a target on a specific group of women for things OTHER than abortion.