By Michael B. Keegan - Huffpost Politics
Last week, the House of Representatives passed the latest in a series of extreme, but effectively symbolic, anti-choice measures. Last week's contribution, HR 3, nicknamed "Stupak on Steroids," a bill that if signed into law would eliminate abortion coverage for millions of women paying for insurance out of their own pockets, passed with the support of all House Republicans and sixteen Democrats. HR 3 piggy-backed on another symbolic vote to defund Planned Parenthood and eliminate all Title X family planning funding.
What happened to the Republicans' laser focus on the economy? Why is the House's GOP majority putting in this big effort to show how much they dislike women having reproductive choice -- rather than say, spending their time creating jobs or finding meaningful solutions to the budget deficit? The first reason is clearly to pander to a far-right base at the expense of American women. But the second reason is that sometimes failed efforts to implement extremism on the federal level spawn often successful copycat legislation in the states. And that is exactly what is happening with these bills to strip away women's rights.
The House's attempt to defund Planned Parenthood, for instance, was dead on arrival in the Senate. But now, at least six states have taken matters into their own hands and are attempting to deprive their own residents of Planned Parenthood's services -- often jeopardizing unrelated health services in the process. Yesterday, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a bill that cuts off the $3 million in federal funding that the state directs to Planned Parenthood. Gov. Daniels signed the bill despite the risk that it will cause the state to lose the rest of its federal funding for family planning services. To this potential presidential candidate, making an anti-choice statement is worth the risk of jeopardizing millions of dollars in medical services to low-income residents.
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