Representatives
represent the people, right?
Oh yeah -- not women
The above is a response to The Atlantic Facebook page, which proposed readers write about our mammoth budget battle in one sentence, with bonus points for a haiku. Not my best work, I admit, but it gets the point across.
You've probably heard there's a government shutdown that may occur at midnight tonight due to our government's inability to compromise over budget issues. If this happens, we risk leaving 800,000 federal workers without pay.
What’s the issue? Planned Parenthood defunding. I've written about this issue before, and despite the help of celebrities, a campaign, rallies and letters to congress involving the support of hundreds of thousands of women and men, some of our representatives still can't get it through their heads that Planned Parenthood's services are vital. And this may indeed cause a government shutdown.
While Republicans deny that their inability to compromise is due to the Planned Parenthood issue, Democrats say this measure is the breaking point.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said it's up to conservatives to "drop this very, very mean-spirited attack on women."
Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan said the Republicans were actually elected in order to get Planned Parenthood defunded. Uh, I thought you guys were elected in order to create more jobs? He instead wants to defend American Family Values, a nice label for a set of values that are probably straight from the 1950s.
But I digress. It doesn't seem to matter that government funding doesn't go to abortion, and most of Planned Parenthood's care goes to things like contraceptives and cancer screenings -- a strategic connection can somehow still be made to this polarizing issue. Does this warrant a shutdown, however? I think not.
Access to healthcare
is only controversial
when it's for women
Feel free to comment with your haikus of the budget battle.
