The abortion “industry” and Planned Parenthood have to rank near the top of nonsensical issues today’s Republicans rail on. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines industry “as a distinct group of productive or profit-making enterprises”. This is the antonym of anyone offering abortion services.
Following the Donald Trump fiasco about punishing women that get abortions, we are told that the real murderers are the abortion industry doctors that entice young women to kill their unborn babies for their doctor’s profit. While the reality is, abortion doctors are providing a low-cost service for women with few alternatives.
Yet, Republicans have to invent an “industry” to personify greed rather than admit that the real driving force for women getting abortions is that it is a last resort to end a pregnancy they don’t want. We might also add these women are in a better place to make their decisions than a large, intrusive liberal government is to make it for them.
And, about the doctors enticing women to kill their unborn babies for their own profit, according to salarygenius.com, the average yearly salary for an “Abortion Doctor” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is $86,433. The average yearly salary for an “Ob Doctor” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is $108,942. An abortion doctor has the same degree and qualifications as an obstetrician, yet makes $22,500 less per year. These are the most poorly paid money grubbers in existence.
Aborted plans
The infamous Planned Parenthood videos Republicans love to hate capture Dr. Amna Dermish affirming a $50-60 fetal specimen reimbursement charge to research laboratories. Yet, Nasco, a highly respected Wisconsin company that has sold laboratory specimens to schools for decades, charges $89 for a (euthanized) 16-23 inch long skinned cat.
Why is this important? Because David Daleiden, the organizer of the videotaping effort to prove Planned Parenthood broke the law, needed to prove the organization sold fetal tissue for a profit. A Texas grand jury disagreed and refused to charge Planned Parenthood.
Daleiden and an associate, posing as representatives of a fake tissue procurement company, made a big mistake using a fake ID to gain access to Planned Parenthood in Houston, Texas. In Texas, knowingly using a fake government document if the intent is to defraud or harm another is a second degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Instead of charging Planned Parenthood, the grand jury charged Daleiden and his associate.
The point of all this is simply that here is another example of the fantasy world Republicans need to belong to if they are going to justify their agenda. Who cares if the facts show there is no such thing as an abortion industry? Even though Planned Parenthood was cleared of all charges and three Congressional investigations costing $hundreds of thousands found no evidence of the sale of fetal tissue for a profit, Congress and a number of Republican controlled states voted to cut off their funding.
The real anti-abortion agenda
Republicans who say they want to end abortions and at the same time slash Planned Parenthood funding are illogical or have a hidden agenda. The non-profit Planned Parenthood provides low or no cost contraceptives for the women at highest risk of unwanted pregnancies. Published research over and over reaffirms that making contraceptives more available is the most effective way of reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions.
If lowering abortion numbers is not the real driver of the anti-abortion Republicans, then what is? Maybe their real goal is punishing women having sex for reasons other than procreation? Deprive them of legal and safe abortions and force them to have the child as a punishment?
Cutting off Planned Parenthood’s distribution of contraceptives fits in this pattern. The only people needing contraceptives are those not intending to produce children. In a misguided way, depriving them of contraceptives might stop them from having sex. Perhaps, there is more to the Republican abortion industry than meets the eye.
