Recently the House voted to defund Planned Parenthood. It’s taken me a while, but I again wrote to Rep. Simpson.

Dear Representative Mike Simpson,

I was disappointed (but not surprised) to see that you voted to defund Planed Parenthood. I would imagine that your rationale was that by doing this you could cut government spending and reduce the number of abortions, however it will do neither.

Federal funds DO NOT currently go to support abortion services performed by Planed Parenthood. They do however go to support services such as screening for breast and cervical cancer, testing for HIV and other STIs, pregnancy tests, sexual education, counseling for rape and abuse victims, and contraceptives.

The impact of this will be later detection of cancers resulting in lower chances of successful treatment, later detection of STIs resulting in more damage and greater risk of spreading it to other partners, people not getting the counseling they need, and more unwanted pregnancies. Let’s look at that last one a little closer.

Currently women who have insufficient income and insurance can get free or low cost birth control from their local Planned Parenthood clinic. If the ability for Planned Parenthood to provide that service is decreased then there will be more unwanted pregnancies. This will end one of two ways, either the woman will get an abortion or she’ll be stuck with a baby that she still can’t afford. This will undoubtedly increase the number of abortions each year and the number of women who go onto welfare. This will undoubtedly cost the government more each year than what it’s currently giving to Planned Parenthood.

Thanks,
Dustin Williams

I focused on trying to speak his language, at least as much as I could. I’ll save the rest of my commentary for the form letter.

In other news I haven’t gotten a response to my rebuttal of the form letter about H. Con. Res 13. The Simpson watch will start soon.