U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and 23 of his colleagues have combined to introduce legislation to defund Planned Parenthood, a national organization that provides various health services to women, including abortion.
“Words are limiting to try to express the moral shock we feel when confronted by behavior so abhorrent as selling dead baby body parts for profit. But where words fall short I’m hopeful that we can be united in action: we must put an end to the federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Arkansans’ tax dollars should not be supporting an organization that condones the activity we’ve seen in the videos released this week,” Cotton said in a statement. “This should be one issue that transcends partisan politics or ideology. To truly honor the God-given rights to life and liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by our Constitution, we should strive to guarantee those rights to the ones least able to defend themselves—the unborn.”
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans brought forth a bill that will ban any federal funding from reaching Planned Parenthood. Federal law already bans federal funds from being used for abortions. The Congress will vote on this issue before they recess in August.
Area residents weighed in on the issue:
“Federal funds don’t go to abortions. People don’t realize this. Planned parenthood provides much needed testing and assistance to disadvantaged people all across the country. Only 3% of operating procedures are abortion related, and again, not federally funded. These fetal tissue samples are used for research for many debilitating and tragic diseases. The centers are being reimbursed for transport, but it’s already illegal for them to profit off the sale to begin with. Defunding it would be a disaster for the countless people that depend on planned parenthood for their great multitude of treatment. This is a shameful attack by conservative special interest groups. If people want to stop spending tax dollars on murder, perhaps reconsider the military budget before attacking family planning and std treatment.”
—Hank Belding
“We can still have legal abortions without the taxpayers paying for them. We all have our pros and cons for or against abortions. I just don’t think that people that disagree with abortions should have to pay, with our tax dollars, for something they do not believe in.”
—Dee Prewett
“No, their funding should not be suspended. As mentioned above, federal funds do not go towards abortions — the Hyde Amendment put a ban on that. Planned Parenthood helps with contraception, cancer screenings, and a host of other services that help disadvantaged families. Further, if they try to suspend their funding, they will run into several legal snafus due to a little thing called “freedom of choice provisions”… see Indiana, Arizona, North Carolina, and Tennessee for examples of unsuccessful attempts to block federal funding to Planned Parenthood. But the real issue is that nothing illegal is being done. Add to that the fact that the video was heavily edited and several things were presented out of context (and they waited a year to released the video) it’s a shaky smear campaign and politicians are just jumping on their soapboxes to fan election season propaganda.”
—Brandi Watson
“Tom Cotton is an idiot. Planned Parenthood does so many good things for so many people. Taking away their funding is wrong and disgusting!"
—Ryan Brown
“I do not agree with abortion, but honestly, aborted fetuses are either thrown away or they can donate the stem cells … and yeah, those stem cells save lives. But stem cells are not organs. I do not think Planned Parenthood should have their funding taken away. There are people who depend on them for assistance and they should get that assistance.”
—Andrea Groshong
“Harvesting and selling aborted baby parts, to me, is deplorable. I can accept with measured reluctance a woman choosing to abort due to rape, incest and health issues. Stopping the funding issue? I wish there was a way to prevent my tax money from going to them.”
—Norm Faith
“All of you people on the side of planned parenthood need to go read the latest posts from Matt Walsh.”
—Leah Kirksey