David Michael Miller
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is celebrating its 80th year as a health care provider in this state. In 2014 alone, the organization served over 61,000 patients, providing thousands of cervical cancer screenings and breast exams as well as birth control counseling and delivery to tens of thousands of women. It has saved countless lives and prevented untold unwanted pregnancies.
Of course, none of those facts and figures matter. Anti-abortion groups across the nation have one deceptively (and poorly) edited video that makes it look like Planned Parenthood is selling fetal body parts. That’s apparently enough evidence to strip away access to health care for women.
I work as a video editor — give me five minutes of interview footage and I can make a person say pretty much anything. It is a shame Hollywood is filled with liberals. The Republican Party desperately needs someone who can explain to it how video editing software works.
Emboldened by the power of disingenuous editing, Republicans in the U.S. Senate tried unsuccessfully Monday to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Closer to home, Rep. Andre Jacque (R-De Pere) is floating two bills specifically aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood. This is not the first time Jacque has flexed his pro-life muscle.
One of the bills he is floating would ban the donation of fetal tissue in Wisconsin. No one in the state, including Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, accepts fetal tissue donations. The Republicans, with their total control over state government, have decided to ban something that isn’t happening.
Political theater aside, I worry more about Jacque’s second bill. Jacque wants the state to apply for federal Title X funds that currently go to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.
Title X is a federal grant that was started under President Richard Nixon, a Republican. For more than 35 years, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has been the Title X grantee in our state. They’ve served in this capacity under Republican and Democratic administrations.
Wisconsin’s share is about $3.5 million. With that funding, Planned Parenthood and their partners provide services at 17 clinics statewide. These services include basic reproductive care, cancer screenings, birth control counseling and educational programming.
This next sentence sounds painfully obvious but I feel obliged to say it. Not a dime of Title X funding goes to abortions.
“With almost four decades under Title X, we’ve built relationships with other health care providers, county and private,” says Nicole Safar, policy director at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. “Women know and trust us as a source of high-quality and nonjudgmental health care. One in five women have gone to Planned Parenthood.”
Now, Jacque wants the state to compete for these funds. While I’m sure the folks at the state would eventually do a fine job, they would be starting from scratch. They would have to find new facilities and employees and build relationships within the communities being served. What Jacque is proposing isn’t just reinventing the wheel. It’s reinventing every single part of the automobile.
Infrastructure work takes a lot of time and money. It is an utter waste of effort when a perfectly good service model already exists. Services would be disrupted needlessly. Some of the women relying on the health care services provided by Title X would fall through the cracks during the transition.
Republicans like Jacque are so preoccupied with Planned Parenthood as an abortion provider, they are willing to sell out their own principles. This is the party that refused to accept hundreds of millions of dollars in additional federal Medicaid funds during a state budget crisis, largely because they didn’t want to give President Barack Obama a win. Now the Republicans are happy to chase after federal health care dollars — just as long as it hurts an ideological foe.
If Planned Parenthood were any other organization, Wisconsin Republicans would be singing its praises. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is one of the most successful, longest-lasting public-private partnerships in the state, and conservatives are always trying to promote public-private partnerships, even failing ones.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, for instance, Gov. Scott Walker’s pet project, continues to flounder. Companies are producing somewhere around half of the jobs they promised. Loans aren’t being repaid. The Republican solution is to remove legislative oversight of the WEDC’s board. The agency can keep failing — just do it out of the public eye.
Planned Parenthood’s Title X funding saves lives through cancer detection and STI treatment, but still can serve only about a quarter of the women who are in need of family planning services in Wisconsin. If nothing else, Jacque and his party should focus on meeting the needs of these women before they try to defund what’s working.
Alan Talaga co-writes the Off the Square cartoon with Jon Lyons and blogs at isthmus.com/madland.
