Who Would Have Thought!

With all the talk of the “Fiscal Cliff” and a balanced budget what do you think some of the first bills that were introduced in the House were? You are wrong, they were not balanced budget bills but bills to deny funding to Planned Parenthood.

Anti-Women’s Health Legislators Didn’t Waste Any Time in the First Days of Congress

Here’s a list of the top five most ridiculous federal bills affecting women’s health and abortion access introduced in the first two days of session!


    H.R. 23: Sanctity of Human Life Act
    H.R. 23 is as extreme as it gets.  A “personhood” bill to define life as beginning at fertilization, this measure could ban abortion with no exceptions, block access to forms of birth control, and outlaw medical treatments such as in vitro fertilization or the treatment of pregnant women with cancer.  Voters in conservative states like Mississippi and Colorado have already rejected this extreme and dangerous measure by overwhelming margins, but that didn’t stop Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) prioritizing this for the first full day of session.
    
    H.R. 61: Title X defunding bill
    Sound familiar? In 2011, Rep. Mike Pence introduced a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.  He was even willing to shut down the government over the issue.  But ultimately, after a long battle, this dangerous and extreme bill was defeated in the Senate, with a final bipartisan vote 42-58.  Mike Pence is no longer in Congress (unfortunately, he will be the new governor of Indiana) but that doesn’t mean his ideas have simply disappeared.  Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn introduced a bill to continue what Pence was unable to do: bar Planned Parenthood from participating in federal health programs.  Did we suddenly end up back in 2011? So far though, not much appetite for it. It has zero co-sponsors.
    
    H.R. 217: Title X Defunding Bill
    Call it a case of deja-déjà vu. Not to be outdone by her fellow Tennessee representative, Congresswoman Diane Black also introduced a bill designed to block Planned Parenthood from participating in the nation’s Title X family planning program.  At least she’s managed to get some co-sponsors.

What is the definition of insanity… something about repeating the same thing over and over and expecting deferment results? You would have thought that the Republicans would have learned some thing from the last elections