Dear Senator Warren,
The other day I watched your impassioned speech on the Senate floor in defense of
Planned Parenthood. Admittedly, it was a very good speech, as speeches go. I
have come to expect this from you; you are a very gifted orator and politician.
However, your speech on August 3rd, 2015, was so riff with fallacies, lies, and
misinformation that I could not let it go without a response. Unfortunately,
since I am unable to stand up on the Senate floor and reply, this will have to do
for the time being. I would like to address your speech point by point, so
please bear with me. (Your speech is in bold, and my responses are immediately
following each of your points.)
"Madam
President, I come to the Senate floor to ask my Republican colleagues a
question: Do you have any idea what year it is? Did you fall down and hit your
head and think you woke up in the 1950s or the 1890s? Should we call for a
doctor?"
Ok, right off the bat this strikes a discordant note. Your tone
here is incredibly condescending and dripping with sarcasm. Not the best way to
start a dialogue on a tough issue. Yes, Republicans know what year it is, and
no, they didn't fall down and bash their heads on the Capitol steps. If you
wanted me to listen to your point of view this was not the way to begin. Rather
than opening up a respectful discussion or respectfully voicing your opinions
in the world's most powerful lawmaking body, you resorted to outdated, ad
hominem attacks on your fellow legislators. Not the most powerful argument.
"Because
I simply cannot believe that in the year 2015, the U.S. Senate would be
spending its time trying to defund women’s health care centers. On second thought,
maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. The Republicans have had a plan for years
to strip away women’s rights to make choices about their own bodies."
Senator, I am quite familiar with your speeches and so I know
that this is not the first time you have used this line of reasoning. Whenever
the issue of abortion or women's health comes up you or one of your fellow
Democrats gets up and starts decrying the "Republican war on women."
This is not about abortion you always say. This is about old-fashioned white
men clinging to their guns and Please
don't insult our intelligence, as MSNBC's Joe Scarborough put it the other
morning. Nobody is interested in taking away women's access to affordable
health care. What advantage would that provide to Republicans? If Republicans
are so set on discriminating against women, then why are there so many women
Republicans and conservatives? My mom is Republican. Ask her if she thinks Rand
Paul wants to deny her health care. Many of my female friends are Republican.
Ask them if they believe Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz or Scott Walker wants to deprive
them of health care. Why don't you talk to Senators Deb Fischer, Kelly Ayotte
and Joni Ernst, or Governors Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez and ask them if
they are trying to deal a blow to women's rights? If your reasoning is correct
then all Republicans would be men.religion and desperately trying to keep women in the kitchen where they belong. Or so you would have us believe.
"Just
look at the recent facts. In 2013, Republicans threatened to shut down the
government unless they could change the law to let employers deny women access
to birth control. In March of this year, Republicans held up a
noncontroversial, bipartisan bill to stop human trafficking. Why? Because they
demanded new anti-abortion restrictions to cover private funding meant to help
the victims of human trafficking."
Here's where things really go
south, Senator. This is not just wrong; it is a flat out dishonest
misrepresentation of the facts. The only ones disrupting the government's
proceedings have been the Democrats, who have shown an obstinate refusal to
compromise. The human trafficking bill you speak of was certainly an admirable
cause, one that had little to no controversy surrounding it. However, when pro-life
senators, acting in accordance with the desires of their constituents placed an
amendment in the bill that merely assured that none of the bill's funding would
go towards abortion services, Democrats let out a blood curdling (metaphorical)
howl, dug in their heels, and blocked the bill, thereby causing its failure.
Time and time again Democrats have proven that they expect Republicans to bow
to their every whim, while they themselves will not give one inch. When the
Dems were in the majority they whined and complained that the GOP should give
in and compromise since they were the minority party. Now, when the GOP
controls both houses, Democrats won't budge, and still manage to blame it on
the Republicans. The fact of the matter is that the amendment Republicans
proposed had very little effect on this bill and was not reason enough for you
to oppose it.
"Let’s
be clear. It is not just Congress. Over the past 5 years Republican State
legislators have passed nearly 300 new restrictions on abortion access. This
year alone Republican State legislators have passed more than 50 new
restrictions on women’s access to legal health care."
I find it odd that in a speech about Planned Parenthood you are
just now mentioning abortion. In regards to the nearly 300 abortion
restrictions, you're darn right we did, and we're proud of it, too! And don't
talk to me about health care. Abortion is not health care. When I think
about health care I think about a doctor caring for someone, with caring being the
key word. Not ripping them apart, limb from limb. That is what abortion does.
When I go to the doctor I want him to cure me, not kill me and sell my arms and
legs.
"Let’s
be really clear about something. The Republican scheme to defund Planned
Parenthood is not some sort of surprised response to a highly edited video. Nope.
The Republican vote to defund Planned Parenthood is just one more piece of a
deliberate, methodical, orchestrated, rightwing attack on women’s rights, and I
am sick and tired of it. Women everywhere are sick and tired of it. The
American people are sick and tired of it."
First of all, these videos were only edited to make them shorter.
The full length videos can be seen on YouTube and are several hours long. The
full length versions are just as horrifying, if not more so, than the shorter
versions. They were edited for practicality, not to falsify information.
Secondly, your claim that Americans are sick and tired of this
"scheme to defund Planned Parenthood" is somewhat dubious. According
to the latest data, a large majority of Americans favor at least some
restrictions to abortion. I see what you're doing here. You're trying to turn
this around on us. You completely ignore the disgusting content of the videos
and the disturbing illegal activity going on within Planned Parenthood and try
and make this about women's rights. Well, this is not about women's rights.
This is about alleged illegal activity. According to United States law, human
tissue trafficking is punishable by up to ten years in prison and/or a $500,000
fine. Aren't these allegations worth at least some sort of investigation? If
you truly had good will, you would call for a thorough investigation of this
issue. Instead, you "stand with Planned Parenthood" no matter what.
How far does your loyalty go? What has PP done for you that makes you so
fiercely loyal to their interests? It seems to me that as a multi-million
dollar company, Planned Parenthood is capable of defending itself. It is your
job, as a member of Congress, to ensure that organizations which you fund are
in compliance with U.S. law. It is not your job to be their lawyer or
spokeswoman. Do you know what I am sick and tired of? I am sick and tired of
politicians like you feigning outrage over "women's rights," while
turning a blind eye to the millions of women being murdered before they are
even born. I am sick and tired of the utter hypocrisy of those who will
overlook any wrongdoing as long as it suits their agenda. I am sick and tired
of the left screaming "oppression" at every turn, except when it
concerns the unborn.
"Scheduling
this vote during the week of a big FOX News Presidential primary debate, days
before candidates take trips to Iowa or New Hampshire isn’t just some clever
gimmick. This is an all-out effort to build support to take away a woman’s
right to control her own body and access to medical care she may need."
You are right; these videos were released in a very calculated
manner and at a very specific time. And do you know why? Because it is the only
way this type of thing would get any coverage. Time and time again we have seen
the mainstream media cover up for Planned Parenthood (and other
people/organizations they adore). Even in this case, despite the pro-life
movement's best efforts, these videos have received minimal news coverage in
comparison to some of the other things ABC, MSNBC, and CNN deem newsworthy. The
makers of these videos wanted to ensure that they would not and could not be
ignored. And don't tell me you wouldn't do the same in their situation. It is
merely the nature of politics, so don't pretend that you are somehow above such
a move.
"This
affects all of us, whatever your age, wherever you live. I guarantee that you
know someone who has used Planned Parenthood health care centers. No one may
mention it at Thanksgiving dinner or post it on Facebook for the whole world to
know, but just look at the facts. One in five women in America is a Planned
Parenthood patient at least once in her life. Every single year nearly 2.7
million women and men show up for help at Planned Parenthood. Why do so many
people use Planned Parenthood? Because they are nonprofit and they are open.
More than half of Planned Parenthood centers are located in areas without ready
access to health care. Women who can't get appointments anywhere else go to
Planned Parenthood for pap tests and cancer screenings. Couples go to Planned
Parenthood for STD treatments or pregnancy tests. Young people go to Planned
Parenthood for birth control. And, yes, 3 percent of patients visit Planned
Parenthood for a safe and legal abortion with a doctor who will show compassion
and care for a woman who is making one of the most difficult decisions of her
entire life."
You know, Mrs. Warren, it is not
very becoming of a United States Senator to repeatedly use false facts and
statistics. And it is especially unbecoming of you to consistently skew the
truth and feed lies to the American people. What am I talking about? Let me explain. If 2.7 million men and women
utilize Planned Parenthood's services each year and Planned Parenthood does roughly
330,000 abortions each year, where exactly do you get your 3% figure? If you
divide 330,000 by 2,700,000 you get about 12%. This repeatedly cited, but still
false, 3% statistic is one which Planned Parenthood has invented in order to
mask the true purpose of their organization. Here's how they get to this
number: "By Planned Parenthood’s math, a woman who gets an abortion but
also a pregnancy test, an STD test, and some contraceptives has received four
services, and only 25 percent of them are abortion. This is a little like
performing an abortion and giving a woman an aspirin, and saying only half of
what you do is abortion. Such cracked reasoning could be used to obscure the
purpose of any organization. The sponsors of the New York City Marathon could
count each small cup of water they hand out (some 2 million cups, compared with
45,000 runners) and say they are mainly in the hydration business." (National
Review) The fact of the
matter is that 12.6% of all women who go to Planned
Parenthood go there to obtain an abortion. These abortions account for a huge
portion of Planned Parenthood's annual revenue. If we say that an average
abortion costs $450, then PP would gross $148,000,000 per year on abortions.
So, when you say that 3% of women go to Planned Parenthood for an
abortion, you are just plain wrong. It doesn't take a genius to see that there
are some serious discrepancies in Planned Parenthood's figures.
"To
be clear, even though the abortions performed at Planned Parenthood are safe
and legal, the Federal Government is not paying for any of them— not one dime.
For almost 40 years the Federal Government has prohibited Federal funding for
abortions except in the cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. Most of the
money Planned Parenthood receives from the government comes in the form of
Medicaid payments for medical care provided to low-income patients, the same
payments any other doctor or clinic receives for providing cancer screenings or
other medical exams. The rest of Planned Parenthood’s Federal funding comes
from title X that provides birth control to low-income and uninsured people,
the same program the House Republicans voted to cut in June. The government
doesn’t fund abortions, period."
It was safe and legal for Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Mao
Zedong to kill tens of millions of their own people. It was safe and legal for
American plantation owners to own, beat, and kill their slaves. History has
proven that legality does not equal morality.
As to your claim that the government does not fund abortions,
well, you're distorting the truth yet again. As anyone with half an
understanding of economics or finance could tell you, money is fungible. If a dad
gives his kid ten bucks and says, "Son, I'm giving you this $10 as long as
you don't spend it on candy." No one in their right mind would really
think this will hurt the boy's ability to purchase candy. While he might not
use that exact ten dollar bill, he can use one of his own to the same effect.
Every year Planned Parenthood receives their $528 million government subsidy.
While they are legally prohibited from using that specific money for abortions,
they are now free to use $500 million of their own money for abortion.
"A
vote today to defund Planned Parenthood is not a vote to defund abortions. It
is a vote to defund cancer screenings, birth control, and basic health care for
millions of women. I say to my Republican colleagues: The year is 2015, not
1955 and not 1895. Women have lived through a world where backward-looking
ideologues tried to interfere with the basic health decisions made by a woman
and her doctor, and we are not going back—not now, not ever. The Republican
plan to defund Planned Parenthood is a Republican plan to defund women’s health
care. For my daughter, for my granddaughters, for people all across
Massachusetts, and all across this country, I stand with Planned Parenthood,
and I hope my colleagues will do the same."
What you forget to mention is
that this bill does not actually take money away from women's health care. It
merely redistributes it. And it redistributes it to the more than 9,000
community health care centers around America. Community
Health Centers are actually a much larger women's health provider than Planned
Parenthood could ever hope to be. Planned
Parenthood has 700 locations and serves 2.7 million patients. Community Health
Centers are in 9000 locations and serve over 21 million people. Planned
Parenthood does 378,000 Pap tests. Community Health Centers do 1,787,000. The
only thing Planned Parenthood does better than CHC is abortions, to the tune of
about 330,000 a year. If Planned Parenthood lost its government funding, it
would not collapse. It would not go bankrupt. And to claim that every single
one of its 2.7 million patients would have no other way of receiving health
care is simply ludicrous. And I'm not talking about the rapper. Your argument
that this bill's purpose is to restrict access to health care doesn't have a
leg to stand on.
Since you did not see fit to address the crux of the matter, the
exposé videos, I will do it for you. And if you haven't seen the videos, which
I strongly suspect is the case, you
can watch all of them right here, in their edited and unedited versions. I
challenge you to watch them. I challenge you to watch them and remain unmoved
by their callous and brutal nature. Planned Parenthood has been exposed for
what it really is, a huge money-making corporation that will do anything to
increase its profits. In these videos Planned Parenthood admitted to charging
$100 per "specimen," (i.e. arm, leg, lung, heart, etc.) totaling
hundreds and hundreds of dollars per baby. They claim this is merely to cover
the costs of shipping and handling, and that this is merely tissue donation.
Newsflash: shipping and handling does not cost that much money. In addition, you
cannot have tissue donation without a donor's consent. And I guarantee the baby
did not consent to donate his limbs. This is profit; profit that happens to be
illegal. Fetal tissue
trafficking is a federal felony punishable
by enormous fines and years in prison. Planned Parenthood also admitted to
deviating from the agreed on procedure without the woman's permission in order
to obtain a more intact fetus. And yes, this is also illegal. As I pointed out
in my
last blog post, this is just the latest incidence in a long line of
corruption at Planned Parenthood. Many good deeds do not cancel out a few bad
ones. That is not how the justice system works. If you commit an illegal act
you must pay for it, even if you are the world's greatest philanthropist. And
Planned Parenthood hasn't just done a few bad things. They have done a
multitude of bad things, and it is time for them to face the consequences. It
is too bad that they will always have disingenuous politicians like yourself to
defend them at all costs and no matter what misdeeds they are accused of. But I
forgot; it’s all the Republicans fault. This is the GOP's fault, because we
hate women.
Senator Warren, if you keep ignoring the problem, keep
attacking pro-lifers, and keep pouring on the accusations, eventually the world
will see all your words for what they really are. Soon you will realize you are
no longer in the majority. It is happening already. A majority of Americans
agree that there should be restrictions on abortions. One day you will wake up
to find that a majority of Americans despise your defense of a corrupt and evil
organization. Until that day, I and my fellow pro-lifers will do our utmost to
make America realize its mistake. Until that day, while you defend the murder
of millions of babies, I will do my best to save their lives. And no, that does
not mean I will do nothing for their mothers. I am pro-life, not pro-birth.
Every life, born and unborn, is equally important. May you someday realize this
yourself.
