There are current Congressional hearings directed toward abolishing women's rights to legal reproductive services by defunding Planned Parenthood. This is largely based on fraudulent videos that were heavily edited to suggest that body parts were being sold to make profit. This implicit claim is completely and totally false. There were suggestions that abortions were suggested to women because of the desire to make this asserted profit. I was listening to the CSPAN broadcast of the hearings on the issue. The Republicans repeatedly talked about their disgust at the values represented by the fraudulent videos. This avoids the obvious fact that the use of fetal tissue was approved by the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 96 to 4. The American people overwhelming support for the medical research supported by means of fetal tissue. By law Planned Parenthood is allow to recover the extremely modest costs required to preserve and transport needed tissues. There is no evidence that they have ever received more than that or violated any law in the process of harvesting any tissues for medical research. Prior use of fetal tissue research saved over 500,000 lives threatened by polio. These fetal tissues are require for current research on Alzheimer's, ALS, Parkinson's, diabetes and many other diseases.

Of course, there is the entire range of other tropes used to demonize reproductive choice. It is quite easy for GOP Senators and Representatives to manufacture their respective reports of disgust at what happens with an abortion. Frankly the suffering and societal dysfunction that would result from legally coerced child birth would be far worse. The moral question to me rests in large part with suffering that is actually experienced by conscious entities. Fetal organisms that have no functioning nerves logically can have no feelings whatsoever. Even after nerves exist all they can do is send a signal. If there is no functioning brain there is no way to give any meaning to a possible pain signal. Approximately 60% of those getting an abortion are already mothers. They value having their children. It is just that they need to manage the number that they have so they can adequately raise their children.

The GOP suggests allocating the same amount of money to other clinics. California has explicitly declared that there is not sufficient other facilities to meet the need. Evidence is that the quality of service and the cost structure of Planned Parenthood meets the needs of the poor better then the majority of other alternatives. If Planned Parenthood funding is ended it would drastically reduce the quality and availability of a wide range of needed services. Contraceptive service reduction seems to be high on the priorities of other services that many of these anti-choice groups what to pursue. Again forced natalism is a disaster for society. We have too many children as it is. The foster home system is creaking under massive loads and inadequate funding as it is. Many of these unfortunate children age out of the system with legitimate rage against the society that neglected them.

The GOP is suggesting that they are willing to shut down the Federal government over this issue. There are a vast range of issues that are not adequately covered with this brief post. However, there does not seem to be one single claim supported by evidence of harm to justify shutting down Planned Parenthood. This is once again a case of religiously inspired madness that could create great harm to society.

Don