Tragically, the attacks against Planned Parenthood continue to escalate. Presidential candidates, congressional members and state legislators are fueling the flames of ignorance, misinformation and hysteria about the largest single provider of reproductive health services in the United States.
The types of legislative attacks, especially at the state level, are numerous, and include unconstitutional abortion bans, defunding family planning services, bans on medication abortion, laws granting personhood to fertilized eggs and so on. Incendiary rhetoric by political leaders against Planned Parenthood continues to command the news cycles.
As recently as September 29, 2015 we saw Representative Jim Jordan on C-SPAN interrupting the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, 19 times in 5 minutes while she attempted to answer his questions at a congressional hearing.
Meanwhile, bombings, fires and shootings are escalating. Clinics in Thousand Oaks, California; Pullman, Washington; Aurora, Illinois; and New Orleans, Louisiana have all been firebombed in just the past few months.
And now, at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, 3 people have been murdered and 9 others injured in a violent shootout.
What’s going on here? Well, instead of “health care” being a “health issue,” it has become a “political issue,” with destructive, and even deadly consequences. There’s a rising crescendo demonizing those who support a woman’s right to reproductive health services. And as a result, people are prevented from seeking care by intimidation and coercion.
This is terrorism, whether people are prevented from exercising their constitutional right to free speech, to assemble or to control their own reproduction.
Patients who visit Planned Parenthood need affordable health care and in most cases, they don’t have anywhere else to go. They are real people, sitting in a waiting room, often after work, to get the only care they can afford on their income. Bombing, shooting up or defunding health clinics like Planned Parenthood hurts American families and communities. The impact is very real. Planned Parenthood serves over 2.8 million Americans each year!
But there’s more. Some have argued that Americans experience intimidation and coercion in health care even if they aren’t seeking reproductive health services.
Paul Buchheit writes in Common Dreams that our broken health care system as a whole reflects aspects of terrorism as defined by the FBI:
The facts show intention on the part of corporations to intimidate the population by using market strategies to charge whatever they like for their medical products and services, and an effort to coerce the public into accepting the current system as the only option.
Strong language, to be sure, but think about the Affordable Care Act. Even after full implementation, it will leave 30 million Americans with no access to care when they become ill. And, a 2009 study found that nearly 45,000 Americans a year die simply because they do not have health insurance.
A nation that boasted of “the best health care in the world” implemented reform that – for political reasons – maintained the status quo. Rich people got the best care before reform, and they still do. Corporate interests made billions from our health care before reform, and they still do.
The bottom line is that Americans still struggle to navigate a confusing and overly complicated healthcare system designed to make money for others. And they are coerced into this system and intimidated into accepting it. Terrorism? You decide. . . .
But without a doubt, caring for someone should be an act of loving humanity, not a business transaction or an ideological expression! It’s time to take a stand.
#Stand with Planned Parenthood and join HEAL California to support health care that’s affordable, easy to get, easy to use and available to everyone. Care should be a public service, like the fire department, not a business.
In the words of the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, “Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore.”
Learn about legislative attacks on Planned Parenthood
Four Arsons in 74 Days at Planned Parenthood Clinics
Ugly Surge in Violence Against Clinics
Violent Repercussions of Conservative Media
Planned Parenthood Executive Interrupted at Congressional Hearing
Violent Rhetoric and Anti-Choice Violence
HEAL CA Facts about Planned Parenthood
Read More About Healthcare Reform and “Domestic Terrorism”
45000 Deaths Lack of Health Coverage
