Planned Parenthood prepares for defunding after Trump’s election
by Michael Cook | 12 Nov 2016 | 1 comment
Defunding could be catastrophic. In 2014, the organisation received US$528 million in state and federal funding, representing about 40 percent of its annual budget.
When MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow asked the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, “Do you see this as a doomsday scenario for reproductive rights?” she responded tersely, “our doors stay open”. Planned Parenthood has been offering its services for a hundred years and is not about to give up now.
Planned Parenthood’s foes were jubilant. Live Action, a controversial group which released videos about the sale of foetal parts by Planned Parenthood clinics, said that Trump had to honour his promises:
Despite the millions Planned Parenthood and its allies spent to elect a pro-abortion president and Congress, voters roundly rejected the abortion agenda of Hillary Clinton and the abortion industry that backed her campaign. When the abortion lobby pushed for unregulated abortions through all nine months of pregnancy and wanted to force taxpayers to pay for them, the American people pushed back.
Because of the pro-life pledges Donald Trump made during the campaign, there is now a clear path to end the public funding that enables the dismemberment, poisoning, or starving to death of one million innocent children each year.
The shock of this week’s Presidential election in the United States has overshadowed other winners and losers on election night. Big Marijuana was a winner. Four states have legalised recreational marijuana and another four medical marijuana. Assisted suicide was a winner, with voters in Colorado passing a ballot initiative legalising it.
A big loser was the polling industry, which failed to predict Trump’s astonishing victory. This comes after other surprises (ie, failures) in the Brexit debate and the peace accord in Colombia.
And this has made pollsters’ clients suspicious. “A corporate market research project, you don’t know if your polling is shit because there’s no election day,” Dan Wagner, head of Democratic research firm Civis Analytics, told the Wall Street Journal. In politics, “there’s a day where you’re going to find out whether you were right or whether you’re an idiot.”
Since polling has become a weapon in bioethics policy debates on issues like euthanasia, abortion, or stem cell research, perhaps we can feel a bit more justified in our scepticism about polls which purport to show what the public thinks. It would be silly to say that polling is broken, but it certainly needs a good grease-and-oil change.
Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge
This week in BioEdge | |
by Michael Cook | Nov 12, 2016
It's hard to know what direction the President-elect will take
by Michael Cook | Nov 12, 2016
Cecile Richards insists that its doors will remain open
by Xavier Symons | Nov 12, 2016
Colorado has voted for assisted suicide, while three other US states have voted to legalise recreational marijuana.
by Xavier Symons | Nov 12, 2016
A UK bill that would restrict disability-selective abortion has passed its second reading.
by Xavier Symons | Nov 12, 2016
Should religious viewpoints be admitted to the euthanasia debate?
by Michael Cook | Nov 12, 2016
Shift from the 'reasonable doctor' to the 'reasonable patient'
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