Women's Health System Unready For Planned Parenthood Cuts

Women's Health System Unready For Planned Parenthood Cuts

Now I see a popular argument is made from the people who want to defund Planned Parenthood. They always say, "Well these women can just go to other services," or, "we can just fund other places." Things like that. Well it's not so simple, and it would likely be a disaster if we did it.

Doctors' offices, community health centers and free clinics lack the capacity to take in an influx of patients who would no longer be able to access medical care at Planned Parenthood if the organization loses access to federal dollars. Especially in areas with few obstetrician-gynecologists, patients could end up going without medical care, waiting weeks or longer for appointments or being forced to travel, experts said.

"If Planned Parenthood tomorrow went away, there's a good number of patients just in my service area that no longer have a doctor or no longer have a place to go for OB/GYN services," said Mark DeFrancesco, a physician in Waterbury, Connecticut, who is president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and published an op-ed this month opposing efforts to end Planned Parenthood funding. "If they start calling my office, it's going to be, 'Well, we could take you but it might be two, three months down the road.' If they call other places, it might be, 'We can't even take you.'"

Right now, we have a looming budget crisis that certain lawmakers are trying to use this Planned Parenthood manufactured crisis as a means to hold the government hostage and try to shut it down.

Republican lawmakers and GOP presidential contenders are seeking to take away almost a half a billion dollars in federal money in response to a series of undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood executives discussing the donation of fetal tissue from abortions with people who pretended to represent research labs. A cadre of Republicans in the House and Senate has pledged to block federal spending bills that don't eliminate Planned Parenthood funding, fueling anxiety over another government shutdown the public opposes.

Now this is the part I'm getting to.

But while the underlying fight is about abortion -- and a GOP victory would further curtail access to those services -- access to a wide array of other medical care provided at Planned Parenthood clinics is also at stake, including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, screening for breast and cervical cancer, and prescriptions for birth control. The government provides more than 40 percent of Planned Parenthood's funding.

Although visits to Planned Parenthood facilities represent only a small percentage of the total visits women make to health care providers every year, it's a safety-net organization that caters to women with Medicaid or who are uninsured -- patients who have the most difficulty finding doctors that can see them. Planned Parenthood treated 2.7 million patients in 2013, according to the organization. Federal Title X funding for family planning covered the cost of more than half those visits, but three-quarters of Planned Parenthood's revenue came from Medicaid patients.

Now, MOST women would be able to go to other places, but a good portion of them would be left without options that could seriously damage their health and wellness.

Although the majority of women Planned Parenthood currently serves would be able to access care elsewhere if the gambit to cut off the organization succeeds, between 5 percent and 25 percent of them wouldn't, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. Analysts believe the most likely outcome would be 390,000 women losing their source of medical care -- although the number could be as low as 130,000 or as high as 650,000, the budget agency concluded.

"The people most likely to experience reduced access to care would probably reside in areas without access to other health care clinics or medical practitioners who serve low-income populations," the CBO report states.

It's always the low income earners that suffer... So then what about funneling the money to other health care providers? Well there are problems with that as well.

Using that money to build more community health centers that employ more physicians and nurses amid national shortages of health care workers -- especially of OB/GYNs -- would take time, during which women would have fewer options to get medical care, DeFrancesco said. The rest of the health care delivery system is already strained, he added. "I wouldn't say there is a lot of capacity, because everybody right now is kind of working to capacity, from what I've seen."

The National Association of Community Health Centers declined to comment for this story, but Andie Martinez Patterson, director of government affairs for the California Primary Care Association, said that health centers couldn't treat all the patients that Planned Parenthood would have to turn away.

"Eliminating Planned Parenthood from our state's comprehensive network of care would put untenable stress on remaining providers," Martinez Patterson wrote to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in July.

Whether you believe those videos from Center for Medical Progress are true or not, this is a very BAD idea. Defunding Planned Parenthood is dumb.

The concern isn't merely theoretical: providers in Texas were burdened when the state ended Planned Parenthood funding three years ago, and fewer women received medical care. In Louisiana, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast is under threat of being cut off by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), whose health department attempted to argue there were thousands of other physicians to treat women -- but included dentists and eye doctors on its list of alternatives to Planned Parenthood.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I also want to point out this:

Obama Calls Out Republicans on Planned Parenthood

This year, the excuse is Planned Parenthood, an organization that performs a tiny number of abortions among the multitude of family planning, cancer screening and prenatal care services it provides for women across the country, especially poorer women.

Using some deceptive videotapes from an anti-abortion group as a pretext, Republicans have been claiming that Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of fetal tissue obtained from abortion procedures. It’s not true, but that hasn’t stopped the right wing. Its real objection to Planned Parenthood is that it provides family planning – in other words birth control – to women all over America, but saying so directly would be a tactical mistake. (By the way, Planned Parenthood is already barred from spending a dime of federal money on abortions.)

Today, speaking to the Business Roundtable, President Obama pointed out that “it’s not good sense to hold an $18 trillion global economy” hostage to an ideological antipathy toward “a women’s health care provider that receives 20 cents out of every thousand dollars in the federal budget.”

He was right, of course. And he was right when he went on to say that it is time for Congress to start “moving beyond some of the stale debates we’ve been having about spending and revenue.”

Obama is smarter than most of the Republican Congress. Lol.

It's fantasy, that's all. The Republicans are not going to de-fund PP, nor do they want to. This is just pandering and posturing to the base during an election cycle. Of course, the base eats it up like good little minions.

a reply to: introvert

I know, but the battle isn't over. Some of the Republicans are smartening their game up.

GOP seeks plan to avoid shutdown, defund Planned Parenthood

Top House Republicans are actively exploring a plan to avoid a government shutdown by targeting Planned Parenthood funding through a stand-alone budget tactic and passing a stop-gap measure that is free of restrictions on the abortion rights group.

The idea, which has been discussed for weeks by senior House Republicans, has not yet been explicitly endorsed by House Speaker John Boehner -- and it's far from clear that it will pass muster with House conservatives who are demanding the party leadership take a tougher line against the organization.

But the plan is gaining steam in the upper ranks of the House GOP conference -- and it would remove the most controversial barrier standing before House Republicans over how to attack Planned Parenthood without shutting down the government at month's end.

It would force Obama's hand and make it so that no one can lay the blame of this nonsense at the Republicans' feet.

Under the proposal, the House would approve a short-term, stop-gap measure to keep the government afloat until later this fall. Republicans would instead target Planned Parenthood's roughly $500 million in annual funding through a legislative process known as budget reconciliation, which cannot be filibustered in the Senate.

President Barack Obama, however, could still veto the reconciliation legislation, and Democrats would still hold enough votes to sustain a veto.

But if successful, proponents argue it would send a message to Obama over Planned Parenthood without risking a politically damaging government shutdown. Indeed, some Republicans are arguing that pursuing a strategy that delivers a bill to the President's desk and forcing him to veto it is a better message than getting blamed for another shutdown.

Granted, I and most other people probably agree with Obama vetoing this bill, but this measure likely wouldn't hurt the Republicans' election chances as badly as shutting the government down would.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

Yes, it's all a game. The Republicans don't want to shut down PP, but they have to appear like they are doing something, so they play petty games like this.

I hope people can see pass the charades.

a reply to: introvert

Oh the left and informed independents will see past the charade, but you and I both know that many Republicans and right leaning independents will fall for it hook, line, and sinker. Remember your thread and what we talked about yesterday?

Sorry for the unfortunate analogy I'm about to use but - Why throw the baby out with the bathwater? I'm sure most Americans don't want to defund women's healthcare. Just abortion.

Sadly the hard left and Planned Parenthood (by its very name) have made the two issues (women's health and abortion) inseparable.....so exactly who is it that is really hurting women?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

I see that this is just another thread that has been manufactured to support a particular (progressive) point of view.
It is all about women's rights and not one word about killing immature humans.

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: Krazysh0t

I see that this is just another thread that has been manufactured to support a particular (progressive) point of view.
It is all about women's rights and not one word about killing immature humans.

I'm sorry but we have many planned parenthoods where I live and NON of them do abortions. They help single pregnant women and get them what they need for their baby. They also help single moms and fathers! They do a lot in my area and I've donated many items to them because they go directly to those who are in need. They also offer free STD screenings, pregnancy tests and give out condoms and a couple will give you birth control!

IMO planned parenthood is a good thing and to defund it will only hurt those who truly need help. Never judge someone when you have no idea what or why they are in the situation they are in.

originally posted by: JetBlackStare
Sorry for the unfortunate analogy I'm about to use but - Why throw the baby out with the bathwater? I'm sure most Americans don't want to defund women's healthcare. Just abortion.

Sadly the hard left and Planned Parenthood (by its very name) have made the two issues (women's health and abortion) inseparable.....so exactly who is it that is really hurting women?

How has the left made the two issues inseparable? This who debate started when Center for Medical Progress released the videos about Planned Parenthood to attack abortion rights. Then the right jumped all over it. This ENTIRE debate was manufactured by right leaning pro-lifers. The reason Planned Parenthood and abortion are interchanged is because CMP used PP as a stepping stone to attack abortion, NOT because the left tied them together. Please get your facts straight.

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: Krazysh0t

I see that this is just another thread that has been manufactured to support a particular (progressive) point of view.
It is all about women's rights and not one word about killing immature humans.

Abortion is already legal and Planned Parenthood funds don't go to pay for them anyways.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
The reason Planned Parenthood and abortion are interchanged is because CMP used PP as a stepping stone to attack abortion, NOT because the left tied them together. Please get your facts straight.

Because, besides women's health, PP is also in the business of facilitating fetuses. No matter how many posts or threads one might make to deflect it. That IS a fact.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: introvert

Oh the left and informed independents will see past the charade, but you and I both know that many Republicans and right leaning independents will fall for it hook, line, and sinker. Remember your thread and what we talked about yesterday?

On some issues, I'm as right-wing as you can get and I don't fall for that charade, not for one minute.

a reply to: JetBlackStare

ive been beating this drum since the beginning and no one will touch it. The truly logical SOLUTION is to remove PP from the abortion and fetal tissue industry. If as they say it only represents 3 percent of what they do they wont even notice its gone.

What's wrong with progressive? Progress is a positive word.

originally posted by: JetBlackStare
Sorry for the unfortunate analogy I'm about to use but - Why throw the baby out with the bathwater? I'm sure most Americans don't want to defund women's healthcare. Just abortion.

Sadly the hard left and Planned Parenthood (by its very name) have made the two issues (women's health and abortion) inseparable.....so exactly who is it that is really hurting women?

The ones hurting women are the ones who won't embrace the only workable solution to the abortion issue which would be sterilization, be it permanent in the case of the intellectually challenged, or temporary in the case of those who fail to meet the financial responsibility limits to bear and raise children.

originally posted by: ratsinacage
a reply to: JetBlackStare

ive been beating this drum since the beginning and no one will touch it. The truly logical SOLUTION is to remove PP from the abortion and fetal tissue industry. If as they say it only represents 3 percent of what they do they wont even notice its gone.

Where do you suggest those women go for a safe and affordable abortion, instead of PP?

a reply to: Krazysh0t

im surprised that any logical person falls for this one. So PP gets federal money......and that just magically never touches the money that has ANYTHING at all to do with abortions??? Really?? So i guess that means the federal money doesnt pay for any of the staff that perform abortions, pay for any of the equipment thats used, hell....it doesnt even help pay to keep the lights on in the buildings where the abortions are performed or even for the candy machines the abortion docs get their sugar fix from.


Anyone else see a major logical flaw in asserting no federal money goes towards abortions??? what fantasy land is it where funding somehow magically doesnt touch any of the operations of a business that performs multiple services using many of the same staff, supplies, equipment and buildings in which to do them?

originally posted by: JetBlackStare
a reply to: Krazysh0t

Because, besides women's health, PP is also in the business of facilitating fetuses. No matter how many posts or threads one might make to deflect it. That IS a fact.

So? It's not illegal. I'm not trying to deflect it. It's just irrelevant. You are doing the equivalent of pretending we should be outraged that someone would get drunk every day after work. It's perfectly legal.

Do you not like new medical advances that save lives or something?

How exactly fetal tissue is used for medicine

Fetal tissue has been used since the 1930s for vaccine development, and more recently to help advance stem cell research and treatments for degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Researchers typically take tissue samples from a fetus that has been aborted (under conditions permitted by law) and grow cells from the tissue in Petri dishes.