# GOP Platform, abortion and birth control ??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 28, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955 "2018-06-28T22:03:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2018, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/1 "2018-06-28T22:03:56Z")
Will the Conservatives on the board please help me understand the GOP’s goal with regard to population? - They don’t want to allow abortions, - Although they seldom admit to it, in the areas where they have control they make it as difficult as possible to get birth control, - They want to lower funding or entirely defund CHiP - They want to lower funding or entirely defund MedicAid (including just for the children) - They are destroying public education What possible benefit does the GOP see in creating a nation full of sick, unwanted, hungry, ignorant, desperate, children? How can they possibly think that this slate of policies will end in something good? I guess this comes across as a rant, but it’s an honest question. What is the goal here? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/2 "2018-06-29T00:39:27Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Although they seldom admit to it, in the areas where they have control they make it as difficult as possible to get birth control, How? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/3 "2018-06-29T00:57:31Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Will the Conservatives on the board please help me understand the GOP’s goal with regard to population? > > - They don’t want to allow abortions, > - Although they seldom admit to it, in the areas where they have control they make it as difficult as possible to get birth control, > - They want to lower funding or entirely defund CHiP > - They want to lower funding or entirely defund MedicAid (including just for the children) > - They are destroying public education > > What possible benefit does the GOP see in creating a nation full of sick, unwanted, hungry, ignorant, desperate, children? How can they possibly think that this slate of policies will end in something good? > > I guess this comes across as a rant, but it’s an honest question. What is the goal here? The goal is to force women to give birth against their will because abortion makes them sad. What happens after that doesn’t matter because the forced-birth advocates have had their way. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/4 "2018-06-29T00:59:34Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > How? You’re kidding, right? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/5 "2018-06-29T02:14:01Z")
It reads like a recipe to make criminals. _:::shiver:::_ But it’s not like you can rich off prisons…oh, wait…_:::shiver:::_ ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/6 "2018-06-29T04:29:19Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > You’re kidding, right? No, I’m not. Where can you not walk into a Walgreens and buy birth control? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/7 "2018-06-29T05:24:38Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Will the Conservatives on the board please help me understand the GOP’s goal with regard to population? > … > but it’s an honest question. Ok, since you’re asking an honest question, I’ll give you an honest answer: your question is based on a false premise. Actually on multiple false premises. > [@](#): > > - Although they seldom admit to it, in the areas where they have control they make it as difficult as possible to get birth control, This is false. I live now in Indiana. Prior to that I was in North Dakota and other states governed by Republicans. In all such states, there are hundreds of pharmacies selling birth control and numerous clinics and other places that give it away for free. Republicans have not made any effort to stop them from doing so. So you’re factually wrong there. > [@](#): > > - They want to lower funding or entirely defund MedicAid (including just for the children) This is also false. [As shown here](https://www.valuewalk.com/2017/03/medicaid-bankrupt-greece/), spending on Medicaid generally goes up, up, and further up. In the few small cases where it dips, that’s only for a short term before it resumes its upward trajectory. Republicans have controlled at least on house on Congress for nearly all of the past 25 years, so plainly they’re ok with Medicaid funding going continually higher, not lower. > [@](#): > > - They are destroying public education Also false. No Republican has advanced any bill to destroy public education. > [@](#): > > What possible benefit does the GOP see in creating a nation full of sick, unwanted, hungry, ignorant, desperate, children? How can they possibly think that this slate of policies will end in something good? Now you’ve seen that your question is based on false premises, so I presume you agree that it’s not a valid question. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/8 "2018-06-29T05:31:16Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > …so plainly they’re ok with Medicaid funding going continually higher, not lower… Unless, of course, they are mealy-mouthed lying hypocrites. ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/9 "2018-06-29T13:27:57Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > No, I’m not. Where can you not walk into a Walgreens and buy birth control? Depends on if the dispensing pharmacist decides whether they want to give you plan B or not, apparently. A choice enabled by Republicans. Further, simply because one at this time has options to purchase birth control doesn’t mean efforts aren’t underway to erode programs and protections for family planning services and public health initiatives that promote birth control. We know how you guys work… you’re like rats that nibble away at the edges until nothing is left. No, no, it’s not the _abortions_… it’s a safety issue! Those clinics have to have halls 6 feet wide… and doctors with hospital permissions… and ultrasounds… and yadda yadda, but you can still get an abortion! Until you can’t. Don’t be ridiculous, of _course_ Republicans are anti-birth control… or at least a sizable and powerful portion of them are, and it comes of working in lock-step with the religious right. [https://www.populationinstitute.org/external/Senseless\_The\_War\_on\_Birth\_Control.pdf](https://www.populationinstitute.org/external/Senseless_The_War_on_Birth_Control.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/10 "2018-06-29T16:20:32Z")
I think deep underneath the opposition to abortion, birth control and sex ed is the feeling that premarital sex is a bad thing for women to have, and so there should be as many negative consequences as possible so that more women will remain virginal for their husbands. The clearest demonstration of this is the negative outcry that came about as a result of the invention of the HPV vaccine. If girls get the vaccine then the prospect of cervical cancer can no longer be used convince her that sex is dangerous. As for their opposition to social programs to help children, that is simply because such programs usually involve a leveling of the playing field, which would cause their status to shift down. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/11 "2018-06-29T18:18:40Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > What possible benefit does the GOP see in creating a nation full of sick, unwanted, hungry, ignorant, desperate, children? How can they possibly think that this slate of policies will end in something good? The real answer? It is nothing more than a manufactured wedge issue for them. Nothing else. Whip their base into a froth about killing babies = win at the polls. > [@](#): > > When the Republican national convention convened in Kansas City in 1976, the party’s pro-choice majority did not expect a significant challenge to their views on abortion. Public opinion polls showed that Republican voters were, on average, more pro-choice than their Democratic counterparts, a view that the convention delegates shared; fewer than 40 percent of the delegates considered themselves pro-life.l The chair of the Republican National Committee, Mary Louise Smith, supported abortion rights, as did First Lady Betty Ford, who declared Roe v. Wade a “great, great decision.” Likewise, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who had taken a leading role in the fight for abortion rights in New York in the late 1960s and early 19703, was solidly pro-choice. Even some of the party’s conservatives, such as Senator Barry Goldwater, supported abortion rights. But in spite of the Republican Party’s pro-choice leadership, the GOP adopted a platform in 1976 that promised an antiabortion constitutional amendment. The party’s leadership viewed the measure as a temporary political ploy that would increase the GOP’s appeal among traditionally Democratic Catholics, but the platform statement instead became a rallying cry for social conservatives who used the plank to build a religiously based coalition in the GOP and drive out many of the pro-choice Republicans who had initially adopted the platform. By 2009, only 26 percent of Republicans were pro-choice.2 > > SOURCE: [The GOP’s Abortion Strategy: Why Pro-Choice Republicans Became Pro-Life in the 1970s | Journal of Policy History | Cambridge Core](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-policy-history/article/gops-abortion-strategy-why-prochoice-republicans-became-prolife-in-the-1970s/C7EC0E0C0F5FF1F4488AA47C787DEC01) Indeed abortion generally fits better with republicans who would prefer to not have to pay welfare for poor kids and unwed mothers. Their appeal to religion prohibiting it is thin at best. IIRC the bible barely mentions it and says something along the lines of a woman being compensated with a goat if someone causes her to abort her pregnancy. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/12 "2018-06-29T18:36:35Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > The real answer? > > It is nothing more than a manufactured wedge issue for them. Nothing else. > > Whip their base into a froth about killing babies = win at the polls. Which is why I am skeptical that the GOP will actually resolve this. There is no benefit to them of resolving this. The usefulness is having this as a permanently UNRESOLVED issue (keeping the bases whipped up = votes & money, votes & money). ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/13 "2018-06-29T19:06:16Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > …There is no benefit to them of resolving this. The usefulness is having this as a permanently UNRESOLVED issue (keeping the bases whipped up = votes & money, votes & money). Exactly. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/14 "2018-06-29T20:19:34Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > The goal is to force women to give birth against their will because abortion makes them sad. What happens after that doesn’t matter because the forced-birth advocates have had their way. This is why I specifically asked the Conservatives to answer. I do actually want to know what their thinking is. Please let them talk. > [@pkbites](#): > > No, I’m not. Where can you not walk into a Walgreens and buy birth control? A few of the GOP policies that tend to make birth control harder to get (especially for poor people): 1. Allowing employers to specifically forbid birth control coverage as part of their health benefit plans. (Affect will be greatly exacerbated if they succeed in destroying Obamacare.) 2. Allowing pharmacists to decide which prescriptions they will/will not fill based upon their personal religions. This does not only apply to Plan B; I disagree with their thinking there, but I understand where they are coming from. Many Catholic and various types of Protestant churches believe contraception is wrong, and there are stores which will refuse these prescriptions. 3. Defunding Planned Parenthood. PP does not do abortions. The primary effect of defunding PP would be to prevent needed health screenings and make birth control prescriptions more difficult/expensive to obtain. 4. Preventing State health programs from handing out free condoms 5. Defunding or allowing opt-out for Health education and sex-ed in schools. (People grow up not knowing birth control exists, or how to get it, or how to use it properly.) And yes, there are many places in the USA with only one pharmacy in a reasonable driving distance. > [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Ok, since you’re asking an honest question, I’ll give you an honest answer: your question is based on a false premise. Actually on multiple false premises. > . . . > there are hundreds of pharmacies selling birth control and numerous clinics and other places that give it away for free. Republicans have not made any effort to stop them > . . . > spending on Medicaid generally goes up, up, and further up. . . . > plainly they’re ok with Medicaid funding going continually higher, not lower. > . . . > No Republican has advanced any bill to destroy public education. > > Now you’ve seen that your question is based on false premises > . . . What I see is that you are a Republican devotee with very little idea of what your party is actually doing. Let me fight your ignorance: 1. See above re: undue burdens and birth control 2. Congress let the funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program [expire last year.](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/9/16860802/chip-funding-expired-congress) They later provided limited funds in the continuing resolution, but have consistently attempted to defund as every deadline approaches. 3. [President Trump’s 2019 budget.](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/12/16996832/trump-budget-2019-release-explained) 4. [Education policy under Betsy DeVos](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/02/07/theres-good-and-bad-news-for-betsy-devos-on-her-first-anniversary-as-u-s-education-secretary/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.34eeea96c05d) ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2018, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/15 "2018-06-29T20:29:04Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Which is why I am skeptical that the GOP will actually resolve this. There is no benefit to them of resolving this. The usefulness is having this as a permanently UNRESOLVED issue (keeping the bases whipped up = votes & money, votes & money). But there’s benefit in coming as close to resolving it everywhere as they possibly can. Should Roe v Wade be reversed, that won’t necessarily eliminate the practice of abortion; it’ll simply allow states to impose draconian restrictions on pregnant women in states where people are okay with giving the state that kind of power over women’s bodies. Red state legislatures will try to outdo themselves with harsh criminal prosecution and sentencing. Abortion would still probably be legal in states like California, New York, and others. They could, and probably would, still push for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. They’d go after gay marriage for good measure. Religious conservatives play the victim card well, claiming that their culture is being robbed from them. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/16 "2018-06-30T03:44:40Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > 1. Defunding Planned Parenthood. PP does not do abortions. Yes they do. > **[Where Can I Get an In-Clinic Abortion?](https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/abortion/in-clinic-abortion-procedures/how-do-i-get-an-in-clinic-abortion)** > > You can get an abortion from a doctor, abortion clinic, or Planned Parenthood health center. You may be able to get your abortion for free or at low cost. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/17 "2018-06-30T03:54:33Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > What possible benefit does the GOP see in creating a nation full of sick, unwanted, hungry, ignorant, desperate, children? How can they possibly think that this slate of policies will end in something good? > > I guess this comes across as a rant, but it’s an honest question. What is the goal here? Some people feel very strongly opposed to abortions and are essentially single-issue voters. By opposing abortions, the Republicans gets their votes. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/18 "2018-06-30T13:44:55Z")
But if you are opposed to abortion, logically the way to reduce its incidence is to make birth control more widely available. Fewer unwanted pregnancies, less need for abortion. So why are they raising the hurdles for women to have access to birth control? Because, as stated above, it is really about control of women’s sexual freedom. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/19 "2018-06-30T15:36:17Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > But if you are opposed to abortion, logically the way to reduce its incidence is to make birth control more widely available. Fewer unwanted pregnancies, less need for abortion. So why are they raising the hurdles for women to have access to birth control? Because, as stated above, it is really about control of women’s sexual freedom. I haven’t done a poll but I’m guessing a lot of the people who feel a moral opposition to abortions also feel a moral opposition to birth control. And there’s probably also a significant overlap of people who feel a moral opposition to sex. Their ideal is based on some imaginary view of the “good old days” when good girls stayed virgins and nice boys respected their decision. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955/20 "2018-06-30T15:50:37Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > A few of the GOP policies that tend to make birth control harder to get (especially for poor people): > > 1. Allowing employers to specifically forbid birth control coverage as part of their health benefit plans. (Affect will be greatly exacerbated if they succeed in destroying Obamacare.) > 2. Allowing pharmacists to decide which prescriptions they will/will not fill based upon their personal religions. This does not only apply to Plan B; I disagree with their thinking there, but I understand where they are coming from. Many Catholic and various types of Protestant churches believe contraception is wrong, and there are stores which will refuse these prescriptions. > 3. Defunding Planned Parenthood. PP does not do abortions. The primary effect of defunding PP would be to prevent needed health screenings and make birth control prescriptions more difficult/expensive to obtain. > 4. Preventing State health programs from handing out free condoms > 5. Defunding or allowing opt-out for Health education and sex-ed in schools. (People grow up not knowing birth control exists, or how to get it, or how to use it properly.) You’re confusing making birth control hard to get with not paying for it. Truly an apples/oranges comparison. By your standard the Republicans have prohibited anyone from getting anything that isn’t paid for or in part by the government. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gop-platform-abortion-and-birth-control/816955.md?page=2)