Abortion Is Healthcare, and Healthcare Is a Right

[Content Note: War on agency.]

On Friday, Congress voted to defund Planned Parenthood, on the basis that Planned Parenthood provides abortions, despite the fact that no federal funding is used to subsidize the procedure (even though it should be, because abortion is healthcare):

House Republicans vented their rage against Planned Parenthood on Friday, voting to block all federal financing for the organization, which they accused of profiting from the sale of aborted fetuses for medical research. It was unclear, however, if the vote would mollify conservative lawmakers who have threatened to force a government shutdown over the abortion issue.

Neither the Planned Parenthood bill, which passed 241 to 187, nor a second anti-abortion measure approved on Friday has any chance of becoming law because of opposition from Senate Democrats and President Obama. But the deep emotion expressed by Republican lawmakers during debate underscored the challenge facing party leaders in the days ahead.

...Many Republicans tried to put the debate in starkly emotive terms — describing the births of grandchildren, the planned adoptions of orphans and ultrasound images of fetuses in the womb.

"No matter what party you belong to, we should all agree that taxpayer dollars should not be used for harvesting baby parts for profit," Representative Tim Walberg of Michigan said. "But the debate today is about more than these barbaric practices. It is about the very character of our nation."

Yeah, it sure is. And apparently the character of our nation, at least part of it, is using demonstrable lies to defend denying crucial healthcare services to a population that is disproportionately women, because control of women and our bodies is one of the primary planks in the Republican Party platform.

[NB: Not only women need access to the services Planned Parenthood provides, including abortion. The primary target of these Republican attacks are women, and it is women who are routinely invoked by Republicans who insist they are "protecting" us, as though forcing us into back alleys is some kind of fucking protection. The root of this attack is misogyny, even though there are men and non-binary people who are caught in the legislative crossfire.]

Meanwhile, although this shit has almost zero chance of passing the Senate, and, even if it did, would be vetoed by President Obama, Senator Ted Cruz continues to threaten to try to force a government shutdown if his colleagues don't support legislation to strip Planned Parenthood of all federal funding.

Because denying reproductive healthcare and bodily autonomy to people is so important that it's worth shutting down the entire government over it.

On Friday night, I did some tweeting about this horseshit, and those tweets are collected in this Storify.

And I will say, once again, that I am, and will always be, pro-abortion for any person who wants or needs one. Because abortion is healthcare, and healthcare is a right.