Despite the fact that the funding for Planned Parenthood only accounts for a tiny portion of the budget, Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) insisted to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell that this assault on women's reproductive rights and health care was somehow about getting our deficit under control.
I'm not sure how someone like this guy sleeps at night because given the smirk on his face as O'Donnell laid into him for playing politics with women's health care, he thinks this is some kind of a game. It's a deadly game they're playing and one where they obviously don't care how many lives might be lost in the process of either threatening to or actually shutting down the government, or as a result of their extremist ideology.
And as far as his claim that the Republicans are somehow doing "the will of the American people", well here are some polls to the contrary:
Two new public polls released today show majority support for Planned Parenthood, and clear opposition to efforts to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds for preventive health care such as lifesaving cancer screenings, breast exams, birth control, and STD testing and treatment, including HIV testing.
A Quinnipiac University poll released today found that a majority of voters (53 percent) opposed “cutting off federal government funding to Planned Parenthood.” The margin was 53 percent to 43 percent.
The poll also found that 50 percent of Independent voters — as well as 66 percent of voters aged 18–34 and 60 percent of “moderate” voters — opposed “cutting off federal government funding to Planned Parenthood.”
Read the full poll HERE.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll also released today found that 53 percent of Americans found it “mostly or totally unacceptable” to “eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood for family planning and preventive health services.”
Among women overall, 56% found it “mostly or totally unacceptable” to “eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood for family planning and preventive health services.”
Among women 18–49, 60% found it “mostly or totally unacceptable” to “eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood for family planning and preventive health services.”
Read the full poll HERE. (Planned Parenthood question on page 16).
Below, please find a statement by Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, on the two new public polls:
“It’s clear that Americans understand that the proposal to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds for preventive health care such as lifesaving cancer screenings, breast exams, birth control, and STD and HIV testing, would have a devastating impact on women’s health, lead to more unintended pregnancies and more women detecting cancers at a later and less treatable stage. Americans know this to be true, because one in five women has been cared for by a Planned Parenthood health center at some point in her lifetime.
O'Donnell also tore into Graves for his support of their ridiculous and unconstitutional bill titled the “Government Shutdown Prevention Act.” O'Donnell slammed Minority Leader Eric Cantor for his defense of that bill last week -- Lawrence O'Donnell Slams Eric Cantor For Not Knowing How a Bill Becomes a Law.
