Unintended Consequences

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/unintended_consequences_20110222/

House Republicans voted to increase the number of abortions, raise federal health care costs and swell the welfare rolls.

That wasn’t their intent, of course, and certainly not their stated policy. But it is the predictable and inevitable impact of their twin moves to eliminate funding for the federal family planning program and strip Planned Parenthood of all federal money.

If anything, this assessment is understated. The sharper, and still accurate version, would be that Republicans voted to let more women die from breast cancer, cervical cancer and AIDS. How’s that? The family planning programs also provide cancer screening and HIV counseling to millions of low-income and uninsured people.

Let’s be clear about one thing. Almost none of this money went for abortions. The only federal funding for abortion involves the thankfully low number of situations in which poor women seek abortions for pregnancy due to rape or incest, or when their own lives are in jeopardy. In 2006, the last year for which figures are available, the federal government paid for 191 such abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

More at the link --

[shraby]

1. That may have actually been their intention all along.

Throw women and poor families into the dung-heap of civilization. Many poor families take the double whammy because they are headed by women who traditionally don't make as much money as males.