Choice

The Post-Dispatch editorial board subscribes to the radical notion that politicians should be promoting policies that reduce the number of unintended pregnancies:

Why is Missouri still passing laws intended to create legal obstacles to a few abortions instead of doing something to reduce unintended pregnancies and save real lives?

A recent report from the Brookings Institution lays out the problem in stark terms: Unintended pregnancies cost the nation about $11 billion in health care costs per year. The smallest part of this bill is related to abortions sought to end unintended pregnancies. Far more is spent on state- and federally subsidized health care for poor women who become pregnant and the long-term costs of caring for the children they bear.

Even at $11 billion a year, cost is not the issue. If this state and the nation got serious about reducing unintended pregnancies, over generations, hundreds of thousands of abortions would never be performed.

This cause, if taken up by lawmakers, would be one of the most pro-life, fiscally responsible actions they could take.

They'd rather posture...

A related question:  If anti-choice legislators cared about reducing abortions as much as they say they do, why do they need multiple bills every session to achieve that goal?  It's almost like they're just playing around the edges and passing piecemeal bills that are mostly about pacifying the base and generating campaign contributions for the next cycle. 

Earlier this week, the Missouri Catholic Conference, Campaign Life Missouri and other anti-choice lobbyists circulated a letter to members of the General Assembly separating themselves from Missouri Right to Life's position on proposed MOSIRA legislation.

In March, Sen. Ron Richard ripped MRL for their blind opposition to MOSIRA, despite support from pro-choice and anti-choice members of both parties because of the job creation opportunities it presents. 

This letter (embedded below the jump) is just the latest indication of how isolated MRL has become in the Capitol.  It's so sad, really. 

Missouri Right to Life has joined a nationwide campaign of anti-choice organizations targeting African-American neighborhoods.  Lamar Advertising, which sells billboard space in Missouri, took down a similar ad in New York in February after a large public outcry.  (Shark-Fu reports that this billboard space is owned by Gateway Outdoor Advertising).

h/t Shark-Fu

Crazy Ed Martin appeared to throw his lot in with House Republicans who are threatening to shut down the federal government over their demands to strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.  GOP rhetoric implies that they're trying to block federal funding for abortions, but in reality, the right-wing plan would only stop funding for primary and preventive health services including birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings, HIV testing and other STI testing and treatment.

Martin made all sorts of accusations and assertions about Planned Parenthood yesterday;

• Note to Congress: Planned Parenthood is Not a 'Women's Health' Organization
• Fact: PP uses tax dollars for abortion. Other stuff they say they do (or even do do) does not hide this.
• Facts: PP exposed for lying and pushing underage/abortion. Simple: no tax $. You can fund 'em, not all of us.
• It is wrong because PP uses the $ for abortion. Every1 knows it.
• recently, PP has been shown to be about law-breaking & abortion. No tax $ to PP

Um, no.  The Hyde Amendment has been around since the 1970s, and Planned Parenthood does not use federal funding for abortions.

But what is true is that for every dollar spent on family planning, taxpayers save $6 on future Medicaid and social service costs.  How 'bout that for fiscal conservatism? 

Martin has a long history of saying false and outrageous things about federal abortion policy (and a lot of other things too).  See here, here and here for a few examples.

This weekend, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum told a radio audience that

The reason social security is in big trouble is we don't have enough workers to support the retirees. Well, a third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion, because one in three pregnancies end in abortion.

This morning, Crazy Ed Martin tweeted out "Two Cheers for Rick Santorum" with a link to this National Review blog post asserting that "Santorum is certainly correct that contraception is partly responsible for Social Security’s financing woes" and "Senator Santorum deserves credit for raising the salience of this important issue."

The Planned Parenthood Truth Tour rolled through Missouri this weekend, stopping in Springfield, Columbia and St. Louis before heading on to other destinations.  Designed to counter the lies of anti-women's health extremists and demonstrate the broad support in communities around the country, the Missouri events featured patients, doctors, clergy, nurses, staff, elected leaders and supporters.   Representatives Stephen Webber and Mary Still spoke at this morning's rally in Columbia, Representative Tishaura Jones spoke in St. Louis and Representative Sara Lampe spoke in Springfield. The St. Louis stop also featured Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

For more photos, video and information, check out IStandWithPlannedParenthood.blogspot.com.

I snagged a few photos at the Columbia stop...

Planned Parenthood staff have more from Springfield here and more from Columbia here.

And here are some shaky iPhone vids from Columbia as well...

Missouri's Todd Akin, Jo Ann Emerson, Sam Graves, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Billy Long and Vicky Hartzler -- along with 165 colleagues -- are supporting a new bill (HR3) in Congress that would redefine rape.  Raw Story summarizes:

Currently, the federal government denies taxpayer monies to be used to pay for abortions, except in cases when pregnancies result from rape or incest or when the pregnancy endangers the woman's life.

However, if the 173 mainly Republican co-sponsors of the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" have their way, that would all change. Instead of keeping the 30-year-old definition of rape in federal law, the bill would modify it to "forcible rape," thereby severely limiting the health care choices of millions of American women and their families.

In other words, rape would not be rape unless violence were involved; however, the term "forcible rape" was left undefined, leading some to speculate its meaning since it is also not defined in the federal criminal code or in some state laws.

"This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible," Nick Baumann of Mother Jones wrote recently.

Radical supporters of a so-called "personhood amendment" are publicizing a rally at the State Capitol in mid-January.   Though supporters describe the proposal as a straightforward attempt to restrict access to abortions, it actually would have much broader implications -- restricting emergency contraception, fertility treatments and treatments for miscarriages.

On KTRS' Jaco Report this morning, Ed Martin confirmed that he opposes abortion in all cases -- even in instances of rape and incest.  Listen:

Also note that Martin repeated the still-false claim that federal health care dollars in the new reform law are being sent to Pennsylvania for abortion.   PolitiFact.com looked at an identical claim made by the National Right to Life committee in July, and found it to be completely false.

Yesterday when Ed Martin was sidestepping questions about how Barack Obama and Russ Carnahan will get between you and Jesus, he threw out the following accusation as evidence that Obama et al. are lying about federal abortion policy:

We were promised that we would not pay tax dollars for abortion. And yesterday, the Obama Administration, Nancy Pelosi and Carnahan promised us, they have announced now that Pennsylvania will get $160 million to pay for abortion.

It may shock you to learn that Ed is wrong.  PolitiFact breaks down the charge, which has also been made by the National Right to Life Committee.

Politico's Dave Catanese reported yesterday that Missourians United for Life, an organization founded by now-congressional candidate Ed Martin, endorsed state Sens. Jack Goodman and Gary Nodler in the Seventh Congressional District GOP primary.  Last week, Missouri Right to Life endorsed auctioneer Billy Long in the contest after giving Goodman and Nodler "mixed" ratings, causing some heartburn for Southwest Missouri Republicans.

Honest people can disagree about public policy regarding abortion. But yesterday's debate in the Missouri House of Representatives on HB 1327 & HB 2000 from Reps. Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon) and Bryan Pratt (R-Blue Springs) was ridiculous. 

One of the more controversial portions of the Pratt/Davis proposal would require providers to notify prosecutors if any woman under age 18 seeks an abortion without a court order, in both the woman's home county and the county of the provider. 

During the debate, Rep. Pratt and Rep. Brian Nieves (R-Union) decided that anyone who voted against the bill -- and this provision -- was actively "protecting rapists."

NIEVES: If a person votes against this legislation, to me, it says very clearly and profoundly that they are in favor of increasing the number of abortions and...

PRATT: Protecting rapists.

NIEVES: ...somehow creating this protective category for those who would rape underage girls.

PRATT: You're right gentleman. You're absolutely right.

Listen:

Speaking with KSSZ's Mike Ferguson this afternoon, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and other Democratic Congressman who oppose abortion sold "themselves" and "their souls" when they voted for the new health care law. "It's a sad thing to see them sell themselves and their souls for something that's a piece of paper that's not going to be worth anything," he said at the end of the interview.

This abortion debate is so exhausting. The Senate bill did not include federal financing for abortion.  That's why the Catholic Health Association, an important group of nuns and others supported the legislation.  And before Luetkemeyer and others get totally bent out of shape with the President's executive order, it's worth remembering that the National Organization for Women was "incensed" by the move. 

In a new statement posted on his official website, Rep. Todd Akin warns that if the Senate-passed health care legislation becomes law, "it will create a system where unelected 'health care' bureaucrats can decide to use your taxes to pay for abortions."

This isn't true.  The Senate legislation -- with abortion language written by anti-choice Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) -- would require people who want coverage for abortions to write two checks to their insurance provider, and the plans would keep the money in a separate account from taxpayer funds.  The Associated Press analyzed the legislation last week, as did PolitiFact.com.

This morning before the House Children and Families Committee, Rep. Bryan Pratt (R-Blue Springs) presented his new informed consent/coercion bill (HB2000) which would, among other things, require providers to notify prosecuting attorneys about any abortions provided to women under the age of 17.

Current law requires providers to notify authorities of any pregnancies/abortions for girls under the age of 14. 

That, however, did not stop Pratt from telling the committee that his law could have helped prevent some of the abuse allegedly committed by five men arrested in Lafayette County in November for sex crimes against children.  The alleged abuse by the men in the Mohler family is incredibly disturbing (you can read more here); among other things, a key witness in the case says she had an abortion at age 11 1/2. 

Pratt told the committee his bill could prevent similar abuse in the future. 

A tweet from Post-Dispatch reporter Tony Messenger, earlier this evening at a Senate committee hearing on Sen. Rob Mayer's (R-Dexter) SB793: 

Today, Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-Other Universe) introduced HJR 49, a constitutional amendment very similar to the Missouri Roundtable for Life's latest ballot initiative (their 30th in 22 months) that would, in supporters' words, "stop taxpayer funding of abortion, human cloning, and embryonic stem cell research because they all destroy human life."  

Though it's not entirely clear at this point, the Roundtable's endorsement of this new approach may indicate that they're not able or interested in collecting the signatures to put anything on the ballot this year.

Just like the Roundtable ballot initiative it replaces, the language in Davis' proposal would allow lawmakers to withhold public funds to Missouri universities and hospitals to block lawful stem cell research, and could even prevent grants and private foundations from going to institutions like the University of Missouri. 

The Beacon's Jo Mannies bravely attended the How to Take Back America conference yesterday, and helpfully shares outlines a number of the key themes from some of the presenters. Notably:

• The core of the abortion agenda includes an effort to "exterminate an ethnic people."
• "Homosexual behavior will always be destructive, wrong and dangerous."
• Obama is like Hitler.
• Washington stains the soul.

Ironically, Mannies notes, Friday's "biggest cheers" went to Samuel Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber), who said Washington, DC "stains the soul" and is full of "manipulative" people.  Maybe it's just me, but such statements are downright odd when one considers all of the incumbent and aspiring DC Republicans flocking to the event -- people like Todd Akin, Ed Martin and Vicky Hartzler.