Texas
Related: About this forumPlanned Parenthood Rally draws supporters and detractors
Hundreds protest what they call a war on women's health. Over the last week and a half Planned Parenthood's Women's Health Express tour has visited 16 cities. Tuesday night's protest was the culmination of that tour. Organizers hoped to send a strong message to the governor's office. Those who support the state's exclusion of Planned Parenthood funding wanted to send a message as well.
11th Street and Congress Avenue was the battleground for the latest war over women's health. Supporters of Planned Parenthood are protesting the Texas law that prohibits tax dollars from funding abortion providers and their affiliates.
"Healthcare providers in the healthcare systems say we need Planned Parenthood," said Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "We are a vital part of the health care system in this state. They simply cannot absorb the demand in the state. A quarter of the women in the state of Texas have no health insurance. If I were Governor Perry I would be a lot more focused on how to expand access to care rather than throwing hundreds of thousands of folks off of basic preventive care in the state."
"For Planned Parenthood to insinuate that any type of healthcare is going away for these women is completely false," said Catherine Frazier, Governor Perry's Press Secretary. "It is still there."
http://www.kvue.com/news/Planned-Parenthood-Funding-Rally-draws-supportes-and-detractors-142567585.html
[font color=green]A link to video coverage of the event is available at the above link. The video runs 2 minutes 28 seconds.[/font]
Vogon_Glory
(9,133 posts)Most people who pay even marginal attention to women's health issues here in Texas know ery well that Planned Parenthood and other women's family planning clinics provide much of the (minimal) health care less-prosperous women receive here in the Lone Star State. Right-wing reassurances that some other private or public organization will fill the gaping voids left behind when Planned Parenthood and similar clinics shut down are a cruel joke played by clueless, thoughtless, and ill-informed ideologues, their self-blinded spiritual leaders, and the mendacious, amoral politicians that deliberately foster and cater to such fraudulent beliefs on the struggling women of Texas.
I personally think such "jokes" ought to be firing offenses, both actionable by outraged voters at the polls and by outraged congregants in these divine's congregations.
At the risk of crisping the ears of self-described lilies-of-the-field among the anti-abortion movement, "Money talks, BS walks!"