EDITORIAL: Unintended consequence

March 17--This is not an editorial about whether abortion is right or wrong. It's about how to have fewer of them. Defunding Planned Parenthood is the wrong way to accomplish that.

The replacement for the Affordable Care Act now being debated in Congress includes provisions defunding Planned Parenthood, which operates reproductive health clinics across the country, including clinics in Grants Pass, Medford and Ashland. Republicans in Congress have wanted to yank federal funding from Planned Parenthood for a long time, and they are banking on their newly gained control of the White House to accomplish that.

Planned Parenthood is the target because it is the largest abortion provider in the country. Never mind the fact that federal law prohibits spending federal dollars on abortion and has since 1976.

None of the three Planned Parenthood clinics in the Rogue Valley performs surgical abortions, although medication-induced abortion is available at the Ashland clinic.

But all three provide contraception.

More access to birth control means fewer unwanted pregnancies. Fewer unwanted pregnancies means fewer abortions.

Defunding Planned Parenthood won't stop it from performing abortions. In fact, lawmakers offered to preserve funding if Planned Parenthood agreed to stop providing abortions. The organization refused.

So, because abortion foes see Planned Parenthood only as an abortion provider, they are pushing to cut funding that doesn't pay for abortions, which will cut funding for birth control, which is likely to lead to more unwanted pregnancies, which is likely to result in more abortions.

How does that make sense?

___

(c)2017 The Ashland Daily Tidings (Ashland, Ore.)

Visit The Ashland Daily Tidings (Ashland, Ore.) at www.dailytidings.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.