The signs I have seen around declaring, “I Support Planned Parenthood,” should add, “whether I want to or not.”
Many people see the movement to deny $500 million in tax dollars given annually by pliant politicians to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain, as a step in the right direction. Planned Parenthood gets this tax money under the guise of running women’s health clinics, though the clinics don’t even offer mammograms as many other community clinics do and for fewer tax dollars.
In reality, abortion, in all its violent forms, dismemberment by suction, scalding with saline solutions and piercing with scissor and knife, is its big business. It does about 325,000 abortions each year, charging on average more than $500 for the “procedure.”
The organization realizes even more money from abortions when the pieces are sold. Its president, Cecile Richards, who earns more than $725,000 annually, declared in a letter to Congress in 2015 that its California affiliate “receives a modest reimbursement of $60 per tissue specimen” — read, “body part” — and less in other states.
At the same time, she and her organization have been staunch defenders of late-term abortions, even partial-birth, have opposed fetal-pain legislation, as well as limits on sex-selection abortion, which falls heaviest on females, and have even opposed any requirement that first aid be given to children who survive botched abortions. This is not a life-friendly organization. Rather, it represents choice gone berserk. Nor is it family friendly. With hands deep in mom and dad’s tax pocket, Planned Parenthood vehemently thwarts any right of parents to be informed of a minor daughter’s impending abortion.
It’s time to defund the infamy and take a huge step toward a kinder, gentler and less violent nation.
Dick Murphy, Beacon
It’s truly rich that the letter writer (a male) is advocating against Planned Parenthood in order for the U.S. to become a “kinder, gentler and less violent nation.” I would argue there are far more pressing issues that merit attention if one truly wants to reduce violence and engender more kindness, whether that be how to minimize injuries and death from gun violence or how to provide for the many children who are suffering in poverty. Many “pro-life” advocates are eerily silent when it comes to actually safeguarding the well-being of children.
Defunding abortion is passive violence against women. We become more violent not less. I am not a proponent of abortion for birth control’s sake and that is my choice, but it may not be everyone’s choice. As for the religious aspect of this, Jesus never forced his opinion on anyone but through education changed the hearts and minds of people. His directives did not go to the government to carry out but to Christians. He gave them many responsibilities to take care of. Where are the woman’s supports and education? That should be part of every church. Where is the outreach? It isn’t supposed to be left with the government. Jesus was a proponent of the separation of church and state.
Yet another man telling women what’s right and wrong. He is woefully inaccurate in his description of what Planned Parenthood does with its services for women. They do so much more to help women than just abortions.
Disgusting. Another oppressive male telling us what to do with our bodies.
Where would women who cannot afford health insurance go if Planned Parenthood were shut down? I have never personally known anyone who has gone there for an abortion but I have had many friends and acquaintances go there for their other services, such as cancer and STD screenings, birth control (used for many things aside from preventing unwanted pregnancies) and vaccinations. If the writer could please provide a list of the other clinics in many other communities that offer such services for less money as mentioned in the article, I would appreciate it as I am willing to learn more about the other options.
The writer must have learned his fact-checking skills from Kellyanne Conway, because they are all alternative facts.
You attach no sources, you give no facts. This letter is a wildly misinformed and misleading abuse of a platform.
Where to begin? The government does not give Planned Parenthood money, it pays Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider for services rendered. It does not pay for abortions. If selling parts of an aborted fetus can save lives, who are you to say it’s wrong? A kinder, gentler world would be one in which women did not have to abort themselves or go to some quack who is just as likely to kill them as their fetus. This does not even get into the many life-saving “procedures” done every day at every Planned Parenthood. So, in conclusion, I stand with Planned Parenthood and so should you.
I find this letter extremely offensive in its ignorance and reliance on flat-out lies. Planned Parenthood offers a wide variety of healthcare services, including breast exams, cancer screenings, STD testing, and pregnancy testing — as well as abortions, which are a component of women’s healthcare. I too would love to see a “kinder, gentler and less violent nation” — one where women of all ages, races, and economic backgrounds have access to all the healthcare treatments they need without judgment or shame, where doctors are not murdered for providing abortions to their patients, and where women do not need to continually and constantly fight for access to basic healthcare.
Not one fact.
Why The Highlands Current publishes a letter with so much misinformation is hard to understand since these allegations have been disproved and the person responsible for spreading and fabricating the lies about Planned Parenthood has admitted in doing so.
I would suggest the letter writer visit a Planned Parenthood and talk to the people working there and you’ll see the work they really do. As a man, you may not fully understand it all, but trust that the women seeking medical attention through PP are grown women who are able to make decisions of their own with the support and input of the qualified OBGYNs.
I strongly suggest that The Highlands Current do a fact-based article on PP to educate your readers.
It’s time to factcheck letters to the editor.
I disagree with this. I certainly see many places to take a “step toward a less violent nation,” but I’m thinking we could start by providing good health care for everyone (including birth control) and maybe some gun control.
What is it with these men trying to tell us what we can and choose to do to our body? You don’t own us! This is not a dictatorship over women. We have the choice to protect ourselves in any aspect of our lives and that includes healthcare. Planned Parenthood does way more than perform abortions for women. It’s like any other medical office but adorable. They offer help, education and protection.
I myself am one of those women that have gone to Planned Parenthood because I trust them to take care of my needs and not ever judge me. I’ve always felt safe and confident going there and you know what it’s not going to cost me an arm and a leg to be treated. I support Planned Parenthood 100 percent and I will always support it.
Just because you give a graphic description of what you don’t like about abortions, doesn’t mean nobody needs to have one. There are a lot of necessary things in the world that happen to be unpleasant. Some of the necessary services provided at Planned Parenthood also happen to be unpleasant, but they are still important and necessary. Also in the grand scale of where our taxes go, such a small percentage of it goes to PP that it barely appears on a spreadsheet in comparison to other government expenditures.
Propagandist. I’m surprised this was published.
Planned Parenthood has long been the subject of a smear campaign by the right meant to take away healthcare from those who need it. I support Planned Parenthood and I do not support the efforts of people to come between a woman and her health care providers as well as to dictate to woman about their bodies. They should stop trying to dictate to women. In fact, the last time I checked, I saw that the public overwhelmingly supports Planned Parenthood. We should thus not defund this vital health care provider.
Just a ridiculous rant! Fake article.
What about violence to the truth?
I am glad to see that so many well informed individuals took the time to post comments that sharply contrast the many misrepresentations in this poorly researched Letter above. I have spoken with many women who have told me that they owe their very lives to Planned Parenthood for early detection of cancer, or their ability to regain their self-respect after sexual abuse, or access to education and contraceptive care that prevented future unplanned pregnancies.
I have yet to see a proponent of defunding who can make their argument by sticking to reasonable, accurate facts. However, I have seen many faith-based groups who recognize the value of Planned Parenthood as a compassionate source of affordable healthcare for the most vulnerable members of our local communities. Please tell your representative that you want them to support Planned Parenthood and end this unwarranted barrage of vicious attacks.
In an era of deteriorating journalistic standards and rampant partisanship, I expected our local paper to do better.
I value Mr. Murphy’s right to speak his mind (although I strongly disagree with his message and wish he understood facts and/or reality) but I don’t think The Current provides value to our community when it simply hands the microphone to an anti-abortion, misogynistic zealot without a factcheck.
Why is this letter still on the website?
Typical right-wing rhetoric – distortions instead of facts, all to smear an organization that provides essential health services to women. The Highlands Current should publish a fact based article on the activities of Planned Parenthood.
Why print such a letter? If it’s not fake news, it’s sensational crap to get us to read your print. Foolish, pot-stirring crap. Nice job! Not!
Highlands Current: Very disappointing that this letter was published, and more disappointed that no factchecking was done prior to publishing. This isn’t news, it is simply a move to get a controversial topic out there and generate views. There was a time when The Current was better than that!
I agree with Tom Herring and Ralph Falloon. Furthermore, the decision to print false and divisive muck such as this so-called “letter” is among weekly editorial decisions that continue to erase the trusted legacy of Gordon Stewart, his colleagues and the journalists and neighbors who worked hard to earn the trust of our community when they established Philipstown.info / The Paper. If your Board of Directors is bored by your content or chooses to remain a “hands-off manager” in favor of “independence in journalism,” please demonstrate responsibility and decency to your community by forging a new course, far from what appears to be the worn and divisive footpath of the Ailes before you.
Please don’t turn the Current into the Beacon Free Press: weeks-long tits-for-tats letters to the editor strong on sensationalism but weak on logic and facts. This isn’t about a difference of opinion but rather a call for journalistic integrity.
It was disappointing and very concerning that 26 posters took the occasion to urge the editor to censor postings that they thought were misinformed or misrepresented the activities of Planned Parenthood. They did so under the heading of “maintaining journalistic integrity.”
May I remind posters that “journalistic integrity,” if not the First Amendment to the Constitution (read Oliver Wendell Holmes), requires that editors give equal voice to opinions they may think are antithetical to their cause. And lastly, would these same posters applaud the publisher of The Putnam Press in censoring ads and letters to the editor opposing the election of Sheriff Don Smith? That is exactly what he is doing. I am being censored from publishing anything that casts any doubt that Smith is qualified — morally or ethically, if not professionally, from being re-elected sheriff of Putnam County.