Budget cuts and social issues

In the recent debate about budget cuts, some lawmakers in Washington, D.C., considered it to be an opportune time to inject certain social issues into the discussion. In fact, according to Glenn Thrush and Jonathan Allen, reporters for the website Politico, the reason Washington got so close to a “government shutdown” was because both sides were having a difficult time agreeing on what to do about federal funding for Planned Parenthood.     

For perspective, it should perhaps be noted that Planned Parenthood provides “sexual and reproductive health care, education and information” that includes “Pap tests ... breast exams ... and tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections.”

Planned Parenthood’s federal funding “amounts to $360 million dollars.” And, by law, no federal money can go toward funding for abortion procedures.    

However, some “pro-life” politicians have attempted to introduce blatantly incorrect facts regarding Planned Parenthood into the political discourse.

Last week, Senator John Kyl, R -Ariz., said abortions are “well over 90 percent” of what Planned Parenthood does. Even though, according to data released by Planned Parenthood, “abortion procedures account for 3 percent of their total services.” Kyl eventually justified his statement, claiming it was not “intended to be a factual statement, but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions in taxpayer dollars, does subsidize abortions.”

Many “pro-life” politicians also claim that, although abortion is legal under current U.S. law, it is not legal when it is put up against Biblical law.

But the Bible is filled with countless barbaric acts, almost all of them commanded by the warrior God found in the Old Testament. The list includes child abuse, genocide, misogyny, homophobia and slavery. And, as neuroscientist Sam Harris points out in his book, “Letter to a Christian Nation,” if there is some sort of God, his stance on abortions is perhaps not quite clear.     

“It has been estimated that 50 percent of all human conceptions end in spontaneous abortion, usually without a woman even realizing that she was pregnant. In fact, 20 percent of all recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage. There is an obvious truth here that cries out for acknowledgment: If God exists, he is the most prolific abortionist of all.”  

The answers regarding the topic of abortion are certainly not clear or simple. Obvious human values conflict. On one side, up to a certain point a child is an organ of the mother’s body, and the mother should have a right to make the decisions on what to do. On the other side, the organism is a potential human being, and it has certain rights, as well.  

Either way, the issue is a reasonable concern and should be talked about seriously. It is almost certainly not going to be solved by injecting false information into the discourse or by referring to some Bronze Age holy text for guidance.

­— marduna@indiana.edu