Planned Obsolescence

The Republican crusade to rid the country of abortion providers may have hit a snag on the national level (as Republicans were unable to defund Planned Parenthood nationally) but a number of Republican-controlled state legislatures are pushing to shut down Planned Parenthood clinics at the local and state level.  The man in the middle (and it's always GOP men leading the charge to defund women's health services) is Indiana's Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is about to have either his called truce on social issues ended...or his Presidential aspirations.

Though he says he is firmly anti-abortion, Daniels has repeatedly made the case that Republicans should put aside such issues in 2012 to focus on economic problems. “We're going to need to unify all kinds of people, and we're going — freedom is going — to need every friend it can get," he explained in a recent interview.

Daniels has already taken heat from rivals and Republican activists for his approach. If he vetoes a law that takes on one of social conservatives’ biggest targets, he could make it much harder for himself to navigate the 2012 primary field. And even as he talks of a truce, Daniels has a legacy to preserve as an abortion opponent in his state.

But family planning in Indiana is a fiscal as well as a social issue. Half of all births in the state are covered by Medicaid. If Daniels signs the Senate version of the bill, he would likely be giving up $4 million in federal dollars and bringing the state into a costly legal battle.

Because federal law blocks states from choosing which organizations can provide family planning services to Medicaid patients, the measure could cost the state all federal funding for family planning. Planned Parenthood is prepared to sue if the proposal is signed into law. They also estimate that the move would cost the state $68 million in Medicaid expenses for unintended pregnancies by reducing birth control access.

But Indiana Republican wingnuts are more than happy to have this legal fight, and even happier to see the Federal government strip all family planning Medicare money from the state.  After all, only evil poor people with evil, evil vaginas would suffer here, so why would that matter to a group primarily composed of wealthy men?

Besides, if Indiana doesn't pass the bill (and Mitch Daniels decides to end his political career in the GOP) Sam Brownback will in Kansas.

"We have the prospect of being the first state in the nation to enact that kind of law," said Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.

Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, proposed eliminating the Planned Parenthood funding in his proposed budget for fiscal 2012, which begins July 1.

"Gov. Brownback, along with the overwhelming majority of Kansans, opposes taxpayer subsidy of abortions," said Brownback spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag.

The money that goes to Planned Parenthood is sent to clinics in Wichita and Hays. They are among nine health clinics run by the organization in Kansas and mid-Missouri.

The money pays for family-planning services for low-income women. It also helps pay for contraception, pap smears and cancer screenings, among other things. It's against federal law to use the money for abortions.

The Planned Parenthood money is among $2.9 million that the state receives in so-called federal Title 10 funds, which go toward family-planning activities.

Brownlie called the plan to eliminate Planned Parenthood funding "bad policy, bad health care and bad politics."

But it doesn't matter.  Given the kind of state power the GOP now has in the backlash against Obama and Washington, the Republicans are more than happy to throw millions of women under the bus to keep the rabid tea party Christian Objectivist base happy.  That's all that matters to them, at least.  That and getting elected.