(Birth) Control-ing the Economy? *Updated*

**Update 27Jan2009/10.00: Looks like that provision might be dropped. To quote: "House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income..."

Note the choice of words for the phrases - making it sound as if low-income families are being thrown carelessly overboard like so much ballast, by being denied additional *federal* funding specifically for birth control. *sigh* (Yep, I wonder where that "skewed news" perception amid much of the public is coming from...)
---

Nancy Pelosi says birth control is cheaper, so it's okay to include that in the upcoming stimulus package.

Cheaper than what, exactly, Madame Speaker? Well, cheaper than a lot of things - big-screen TVs, for example - but what she's specifically referring to, is helping states with their health care. It's cheaper than funding abortions, in other words. Or, heaven forbid, funding births.

I was under the impression - and please correct me if I'm wrong - that birth control is already widely available and vastly affordable. Every insurance/prescription plan I've come across pays for it, since like the Speaker said, it's cheaper than most alternatives.** Barring insurance, it's available on Medicaid (or at least it's listed under RxIdaho.org, and I figure if IDAHO covers it, pretty much everywhere does).

That sounds pretty comprehensive to me, already.

And yes, it is cheap. I doubt that it makes up that big a portion of any state's healthcare budget, (hmm... research idea); and it still depends on people actually using it.

So, of all the things to call for, to receive a federal subsidy, that's a pretty odd one.

Since it seems like such an odd thing by itself, I have to wonder what the deeper objective is for this particular inclusion...

**Cheaper alternatives include a) simply not having sex, and b) educating yourself beyond the 28-day pattern "taught" in schools.

One More Check

... in a checkered past, if you can even call it "checkered." It's more just "bad."

Planned Parenthood is in hot water again! It's a disheartening story - coaching a "pregnant minor" to lie about reporting her dilemma so that she can get around the laws in place - but it's very consistent with their past behavior.

The chapter president says, "[t]he apparent actions of the employee would be in violation of our strict policies and procedures..."

Mm-hmm.

Maybe that's why it's happened so often.

Somehow, I doubt that an organization founded by a racist and a eugenicist has - in practice - such strict procedures that they would wouldn't take donations earmarked for minority abortions. Or falsify medical records. Or overcharge the state for their "services."

So what can we do? Protect innocent life. Promote a culture that values life. Fight abortion and eugenics. Life is truly a gift, and the more we exemplify that, the more we'll be able to help others see it that way.