Op-Ed: Deception should not deter Planned Parenthood from vital work
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
 |
| Mike Kreidler |
Mike Kreidler, Washington State Insurance Commissioner
The continuing deceptive attacks on Planned Parenthood cloud the long-term benefits that this organization provides in Washington state as well as the rest of the nation.
In Washington state, Planned Parenthood’s 35 health centers reach more than 107,000 patients, many of them low-income. Without Planned Parenthood, many would likely receive no care at all.
Planned Parenthood also works to make sure that insurance companies in Washington state provide the free preventive services and maternity benefits guaranteed to women under the Affordable Care Act. My office is following up with insurers this fall on their progress in providing the proper information.
Besides family planning assistance, 95 percent of Planned Parenthood’s work in the state covers other services. These include:
- Cancer screenings.
- Exams for sexually transmitted disease to prevent and contain them from spreading.
- Detection and prevention of other illnesses and diseases.
Congressional opponents of Planned Parenthood are likely to try again in September to eliminate funding. They say the money and care provided can quickly shift to other organizations – ones favored by the opponents.
I am proud of my longtime association with Planned Parenthood. I will continue to strongly support its work on behalf of millions of Americans, including many in our state.
But the state Department of Health says such a change would be disruptive to the individuals and families whom Planned Parenthood serves. Opponents of Planned Parenthood again are not being upfront about the consequences.
False and deceptive claims should not be allowed to disrupt the public funding of this vital health care organization.
Posts
3 comments:
When I had no insurance and very little money, Planned Parenthood was the only place that would accept me for a yearly exam. When I had an abnormality, they arranged a visit with a specialist and handled the payment plan so that I could pay them back in small, monthly installments. Contrast this with a doctor's office that wanted full payment up front because I didn't have insurance, and put me on a 3 month wait list. PP is vital to women's (and men's) health services, particularly those in lower income brackets who need medical care and birth control, including vasectomies.
Planned Parenthood. John Lennon wrote, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Planned or unplanned, life happens. Planned Parenthood is about ending life, about making and carrying out plans to end life. They are about feticide: an act that causes the death of a fetus.
From Planned Parenthood's own website: "Aspiration Abortion -- The most common kind of in-clinic abortion...Either a hand-held suction device or a suction machine gently empties your uterus."
The 2004 Unborn Victims of Violence Act recognizes the "child in utero" as a legal victim if he or she is injured or killed during the commission of any of 68 existing federal crimes of violence. The law defines "child in utero" as "a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb." Planned Parenthood opposed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. They argued that legally enshrining fetal personhood undermines Roe v. Wade. (The act specifically exempts all forms of legal abortion).
Life undermines plans, as does death.
Planned Parenthood is a suction machine, gently emptying your conscience.
Mr. Kreidler,
What specific claims do you deem deceptive?
Post a Comment