A Superb Move by Planned Parenthood

For years, Planned Parenthood has offered women basic health services and abortion advice, abortions, contraception (including “Plan B” contraception) at its main centers. However, in Colorado Springs this has been in the face of often boisterous religious zanies and zealots (led by a Rev. Bill Carmody) who have yapped at women seeking services from barely two yards away. This often affected the women’s state of mind, and intimidated others from seeking care unavailable anyplace else.

Now, thanks to a move to a new location miles away, this will no longer be a problem. Because of the layout, inside a medical complex that prohibits trespassers, the nearest abortion protestors will be able to get with their signs and screaming is a football field away. Moreover, the Planned Parenthood 8500 sq. foot complex will be secluded from view so the women accessing services won’t have to even see the religious crazies from a distance.

Services can now be provided without interference, even as the psychos and crazies prepare yet again to insert a “Personhood” amendment on the ballot in November. (Their original amendment was massively rejected by Colorado voters two years ago, but like all fundies they’re inured to reason or past defeat, so keep worrying the same old bone irrespective of past putdowns.)

This in itself beggars the rational mind, given how many already born kids are in dire need in Colorado. The poverty rate in the state has gone up nearly 50% in the last five year. Many vulnerable kids, including toddlers, remain under-served in terms of nutrition and medical assistance. Despite these horrific conditions, including with food pantries running out and insurance companies refusing to permit the entry of new children into policies (to get around the Obama health care law), the Personhood people and their like-minded anti-abortionists haven’t lifted a finger to help.

Oh, they will camp outside of clinics and “pray” for women who make an abortion decision, but they won’t actually materially help the already born. Unless one is ensconced in the womb, "survival of the fittest" appears to wholesale apply. But I suppose this is understandable. Helping in a real world way would, of course, require getting hands dirty or (politically) getting behind measures that financially support these forgotten kids – to help parents get day care, medical assistance or plain old balanced meals.

I’d be much more impressed with their efforts to save the lives of the unborn, if these zealots took care of the lives of the already born first. They could help to set up free (or even affordable) day care centers to relieve time and financial pressures that accompany working parents search for child care. They could also help to organize or set up free clinics for those denied Medicaid or other insurance. We have seen young college grads go directly to Congo in Africa and set up free clinics, as well as schools – so why not the Personhood faction here in the U.S.? If they put in one tenth the verve and energy into pro-child economic initiatives as they do praying outside clinics for fetuses, or writing Personhood amendments, or getting petitions signed – they could show they really do care about LIFE. (As opposed to cheap political posturing which carries no real burdens or costs - economic, social or political.)

But merely investing token political energy in the unborn shows precious little in the way of appreciation or genuine respect for life. Indeed, what's the point in demanding justice for fertilized eggs if the Personhood abortion protestors aren't also prepared to help fully formed children long since born? Aren't they LIFE - and indeed, much more persons than fetal tissue? Kids foundering in a system that no longer meets their needs, especially as the unemployment rate has skyrocketed the past three years, are in desperate need of compassion - as much or more than the fundies deliver to de facto parasites in the womb.

The best way of all the “pro-life” brigade could show us it’s serious about preserving and extending life is to support (by higher taxes) programs that are placed on the ballot to that end. But statistics from exit polls in recent elections disclose they aren’t doing that. When the SCHIP vote came up in congress, which would deliver children’s health insurance by taxing cigarettes, most evangelicals refused to back it- even phoning congress critters to voice their displeasure.

This shows clearly that they place less import on those already born than scoring cheap political points over false economic and tax arguments. (Which shouldn't matter if they're truly invested in lives!) It’s as if they know that via the expedient of simple abortion protesting they can escape scrutiny and that THEIR burden is minor, because the fetus doesn’t exist as an individual child yet. So their pretensions to morality and concern don’t translate into any real skin off their nose, hands or eye teeth. Outrage is easy when the cost is cheap. But show me a willingness to pay 50% more in state taxes to have more affordable health care and nutrition for kids and I'll be impressed.

Does Planned Parenthood serve a need? According to the most recent stats, 30,000 women have sought services so far this year, or nearly 1 in 7 women in El Paso County. This is on target to be nearly twice the volume as last year (20,000). With its new facility sequestered from the nutballs, women will be helped even more - as they'll not have to endure the mental torture from their oppressors - who, if they could, would gladly send them back to the era of coat hangers and back door abortions.