Planned Parenthood is once again being used as a political pawn, and I for one am pretty annoyed about it. The group’s merits far outweigh the ugly birthmark some feel abortion services to be, and I do not get why anyone—anyone—would stomp all over the great good done by Planned Parenthood in terms of everything from cancer screenings to birth control … and that’s probably why I will never be a politician.
It is not my intent to bash Republicans here, by the way. I have a lot of close friends and family members that see the world from the right, and I fully respect their opinions. If they say, “I hate Barack Obama” and are able to explain this logically instead of spouting off racist rhetoric, I’m good with that.
I do at times, however, find myself biting my tongue because I want so badly to ask them how they feel about being identified by an increasingly ignorant vocal minority. Seriously, Republicans with a brain in your head, please take back your party! These nuts are reflecting badly on you.
And the recent stuff with the occasionally tacky Planned Parenthood, the basic arguments of which have been hashed out here before, is just one more drop of water in the bucket … but it’s a receptacle that’s getting dangerously close to the overflow point.
Just last Friday, for example, Republican Sen. John Kyl of Arizona said on the Senate floor that “if you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood. And that’s well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”
In fact, just the opposite is true; well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is NOT abortion. Kyl’s office later said his …