# You almost got distracted from Trump abolishing funding to Planned Parenthood today, didn't you?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 23, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970 "2017-01-23T20:41:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/1 "2017-01-23T20:41:26Z")
From [Huffpo](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-global-gag-rule_us_58822355e4b070d8cad1f774?section=us_politics):
> [@](#):
>
> Today, In one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump has reinstated a federal ban on U.S. funding for international health organizations that counsel women on family planning options that include abortion.
>
> The Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule, was first put in place by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. It prohibits giving U.S. funding to nongovernmental organizations that offer or advise on a wide range of family planning and reproductive health options if they include abortion ― even if U.S. dollars are not specifically used for abortion-related services.
>
> …
>
> Trump’s executive order Monday comes one day after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that guaranteed a woman’s right to have an abortion, and in the week of the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. It’s also two days after millions of people turned out to protest Trump and many of his policies in women’s marches.
>
> The United States spends about $600 million a year on international assistance for family planning and reproductive health programs, making it possible for 27 million women and couples to access contraceptive services and supplies.
>
> None of that money is spent on performing abortions. The Helms Amendment has prevented U.S. tax dollars from funding overseas abortions since 1973. Proponents of the global gag rule believe the policy is nevertheless still necessary, arguing that Helms isn’t strong enough by itself.
And all we were talking about today, was the numbers of visitors to the inauguration and the Womens Marches. Trump bested the liberals again.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/2 "2017-01-23T20:54:09Z")
Some fun facts:
Planned parenthood provides womens health care and pregnancy care. When Texas slashed funding to Planned Parenthood, [Texas became number 1 ! …in maternal mortality rates.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=816493)The rest of USA will soon follow suit.
The USA has the highest ! … percentage of unplanned pregnancies in the world. This is a [rather big problem](https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/unintended-pregnancy-united-states). [From a 2014 study](https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2014/new-study-finds-40-pregnancies-worldwide-are-unintended):
> [@](#):
>
> …the proportion of pregnancies that are unintended varied considerably by region. The highest proportions were in Latin America and the Caribbean (56%) and North America (51%), and the lowest were in Africa (35%), Oceania (37%) and Asia (38%); Europe’s proportion was the closest to the global average (45%).
Congratulations USA. Your percentage of unplanned pregnancies is already far worse then Africa’s. And it’s about to become much, much worse.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/3 "2017-01-23T20:55:49Z")
No, I sure didn’t.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/4 "2017-01-23T20:58:05Z")
Just look at CNN’s front page, just now. “Spicer in the hot seat”… and the Planned Parenthood news a small lettered byline.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/5 "2017-01-23T21:05:59Z")
I read about it on Buzzfeed, which has all sorts of actual news shit scattered amongst their shit-shit (well actually the news stuff makes it to the top of the page, the other shit is beneath it).
It’s a double whammy of audacity. Spelling out what other countries can use their health funding for, and keeping them from using it anywhere near abortion. Holy smokes.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/6 "2017-01-23T21:15:10Z")
Why should my tax dollars pay for some other countries shit? Pay for your own shit.
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/7 "2017-01-23T21:20:14Z")
Michael Moore’s advice is: call your congressperson. The Rep one. The Dem one. Call them mad. Call them everyday.
> [@](#):
>
> Flint filmmaker Michael Moore had some simple advice, and a to-do list, for the throngs of people who converged on Washington on Saturday to protest the presidency of Donald Trump.
>
> “I want you to make this a part of your new daily routine: Call Congress every single day,” he said. “Brush your teeth, make the coffee, walk the dog and call Congress. Phone no is 202-225-3121”
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### Author:  [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/8 "2017-01-23T21:23:06Z")
I stand partly corrected. I thought this was about USA PP clinics. But it appears to be about US aid to foreign clinics. That makes more sense.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/9 "2017-01-23T21:27:45Z")
SOP for a Republican president. Any of the other guys would have done the same, so just to be clear, this isn’t Trump acting out in an unprecedented way.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/10 "2017-01-23T21:30:55Z")
Whenever Planned Parenthood says, “But abortion is only 3% of the services we provide”, it seems to be an implicit admission that abortion is, somehow, a bad or wrong thing.
If someone threatened to cut funding to a hospital, saying, “They perform appendectomies!” you wouldn’t expect the hospital to reply, “But appendectomies account for only 3 percent of our services.” You’d expect them to reply, “Why is performing appendectomies a bad thing?”
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### Author:  [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/11 "2017-01-23T21:43:46Z")
Maastricht No you got distracted by Trump b/c once funds are cut from Planned Parenthood there are going to more women on welfare and food stamps and WIC ! Guess who pays for that !! Planned Parenthood help people plan their families and this is being responsible parents .
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### Author:  [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/12 "2017-01-23T21:53:03Z")
Whenever Planned Parenthood says, “But abortion is only 3% of the services we provide”, it seems to be an implicit admission that abortion is, somehow, a bad or wrong thing.
[/QUOTE]
It’s not an admission that abortion is bad. It’s a counter to anti-abortion groups’ incessant (and demonstrably false) claims that PP is just a chain of abortion clinics.
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> If someone threatened to cut funding to a hospital, saying, “They perform appendectomies!” you wouldn’t expect the hospital to reply, “But appendectomies account for only 3 percent of our services.” You’d expect them to reply, “Why is performing appendectomies a bad thing?”
A better analogy would be someone threatening to cut funding by implying that the hospital does _nothing but_ appendectomies, with the further suggestion that nobody ever really needs an appendectomy anyway. If someone said that about a facility, it would be perfectly reasonable to say, “First, it’s no one else’s business why someone gets an appendectomy. Second, we do many other procedures here, including gallbladder surgery, hip replacements, and coronary artery bypass. Appendectomy is one service we provide and it is by no means our primary service.”
I \*would \*like to see PP and pro-choice people stop pretending that abortion should be some procedure of last resort that’s somehow redeemed if the woman feels really, really bad about her decision. That attitude does nothing but bolster the anti-choice side. Abortion is one reasonable way to handle an unwanted pregnancy, and that’s not something to be ashamed of.
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### Author:  [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/13 "2017-01-23T22:09:23Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> SOP for a Republican president. Any of the other guys would have done the same, so just to be clear, this isn’t Trump acting out in an unprecedented way.
Reversing it the other way was one of Obama’s first acts ([http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/us/politics/24obama.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/24/us/politics/24obama.html)) and George W Bush did the same thing as soon as he took office from Clinton.
It’s just a thing every president does when the White house switches parties.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/14 "2017-01-23T23:01:42Z")
I think of Texas Defunding PP as delayed action schadenfreude. The white folks are more likely to be able to afford birth control through a regular health plan. It’s the poor immigrants who depend more on PP. The Idiots are accelerating their own minorityhood.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/15 "2017-01-23T23:24:47Z")
> [@Maastricht](#):
>
> I stand partly corrected. I thought this was about USA PP clinics. But it appears to be about US aid to foreign clinics. That makes more sense.
Texas has the distinction of doing that without help from the White House.
> [@wolfman](#):
>
> I think of Texas Defunding PP as delayed action schadenfreude. The white folks are more likely to be able to afford birth control through a regular health plan. It’s the poor immigrants who depend more on PP. The Idiots are accelerating their own minorityhood.
Explain. The minorities did not vote this in.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/16 "2017-01-23T23:32:22Z")
More cheaper labor, more desperately poor children to provide services for sex tourists.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/17 "2017-01-23T23:40:19Z")
**Thelma:** The “idiots” are the white people who voted for it.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/18 "2017-01-23T23:56:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Quoth **Velocity** :
>
> Whenever Planned Parenthood says, “But abortion is only 3% of the services we provide”, it seems to be an implicit admission that abortion is, somehow, a bad or wrong thing.
It’s relevant for people like me. I am, for the most part, opposed to abortion (my actual position is a bit more nuanced than that, but that’s the short form). I would prefer that Planned Parenthood not provide abortions at all, or for there to be alternatives to Planned Parenthood that provide their other services but not abortion. But given that, for whatever reason, there mostly aren’t any other such organizations (certainly not on the same scale), I’m happy that abortion is only a very small part of what Planned Parenthood does.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/19 "2017-01-24T00:06:37Z")
I saw this in CNN. It was a mention of what Trump did, with neither explanation nor context. This was preceded by and followed by discussions of crowd size. Deplorable. They need to focus on the Trump voters who’ll lose their insurance and their access to affordable women’s healthcare.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-almost-got-distracted-from-trump-abolishing-funding-to-planned-parenthood-today-didnt-you/777970/20 "2017-01-24T00:17:04Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> Explain. The minorities did not vote this in.
My experience has been that that people who want to defund PP are the same people who whine that the immigrant population is outgrowing white people.
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