FYI – Prevention prevents, testing saves lives, and education is a good investment…

I wrote around 10 posts this weekend…all of them so full of venomous rage that they were unfit to publish, but at least they served to help me work through my emotions.

I find rage unproductive.

Anger, on the other hand, is a proper fuel.

Shall we?

Several friends called to ask me what the hell is going on in the federal government regarding women’s health.  I found myself getting all wonkish in my explanation and realized that lots of everyday folks don’t speak government.   

I'll try to translate as best I can.

Ahem.

The House has lost their motherfucking mind.

Blink.

The House has proposed a budget that cuts all kinds of spending, including cuts to programs that fund life saving cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and education, and family planning.  Those cuts are to the Title X program that specifically gives out funds to health care providers so that they can provide low cost services to low-income people.

So, the House budget eliminates funding that allows health care providers to dispense low-cost prevention based services to low-income people.

For every $1 of public funding spent on prevention services…contraception, testing and education, and life saving cancer screenings…we the tax paying people save around $4.  Public funding of prevention services prevents 1.94 million unplanned pregnancies and 810,000 abortions each year.  That math comes from the fact that for more than 9 in 10 women receiving services through publicly funded programs would be eligible for Medicaid- funded pre-natal, delivery and postpartum services. 

Preventing unplanned pregnancies = preventing the cost of unplanned pregnancies.  Preventing sexually transmitted diseases = preventing the cost of testing and treating sexually transmitted diseases.  Early detection of cancer through yearly exams = more lives saved and less money spent to save those lives.

The GOP controlled House has proposed a budget that will ultimately cost tax payers money, benefits no one, and eliminates funding for a program that is worthy of increased funding given our current economic crisis.

The elimination of family planning funding from the budget proposed by the House impacts all providers who receive those funds.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

The House also passed a bill that would specifically ban Planned Parenthood from receiving those funds. 

You may wonder why they would single out Planned Parenthood for a ban on receiving funds from a program they are defunding.  Trust that the House knows that their budget is not the final word...and several knavish minions really wanted to go after Planned Parenthood. 

The bill that would defund Planned Parenthood is vendetta legislation…and it is a very real threat to the community health care provider most likely to be there and provide those prevention services I talked about earlier.

Now all this shit heads to the Senate.

Do not fall for the bullshit that it's a sure thing that the Senate will kill it – if the last year has taught us anything it is that nothing is certain, we must be voracious in our defense of family planning services, and those who claim to be fiscally conservative wouldn’t know good public policy if is jumped up and kicked them in the ass.

Last week the House demonstrated that they are unfit to govern in the best interest of the people…that they are willing to pass bad legislation to pander to the most wretched among their base rather than stand up for programs that work, serve the people, and save tax payers money.

We must not let this legislative insanity spread to the Senate!

Members of the House who voted for this rancidity must hear the wrath of the people.

Members of the Senate who are now charged with correcting these wrongs must hear the expectations of their constituents.

Now is not the time to take a stand, people.

The House may have sowed the wind...

...but we will all reap the whirlwind.