Public funding of...

A refrain constant among conservatives seems to be that, DAMMIT, we have to stop all that federal funding going to pay for abortions!

You point out that for years now that money for that has been barred by law, it's not good enough. They want to pass another law. It's like they're afraid we all might come to our senses and think better of how we handle this aspect of health care, and want to make it harder and harder to change.

But part of this argument for awhile now has been a repeated assault on support to Planned Parenthood (at @PPact on twitter). As one of the shrinking number of access points for women to receive abortions or information on abortion, conservatives just salivate at the idea of destroying this organization. An act that would simultaneously cut access to health care support to millions of American women and countless families, not that I've seen much care an interest in the real impact of this crusade on Women's Choice.

So, we keep seeing attempts to drive Planned Parenthood from one state then another. Red states have also worked diligently to block the organization from accessing state funds, and if that can, federal. And that effort continues throughout conservative hive mind.

Part of the issue that conservatives try to argue is that they are opposed to Planned Parenthood getting tax dollars as many oppose the organization (Now, polling shows that a clear majority of Americans support federal funding of PP, but facts and their liberal bias...). As Bill O'Reilly has further put it, the Catholic Church runs it's charitable work by donations, and so should Planned Parenthood. It is an interesting argument. Too bad it is false.

Catholics run their charities primarily on government grants. That is 2.9 billion dollars from us to the Catholic Church. And that's 62% of Catholic Charities revenue. That's a lot of money, from us, and that's most of the money they are using...coming from us. We fund the Catholic Church AND Planned Parenthood. (To abuse a meme: Checkmate, Catholics.)

Now, I have A LOT of issues with the Catholic Church. I also have issues with how various Catholic institutions talk about and treat certain minority groups in this country. Does this mean we should be asking for that money back now?

Really. Do we? It isn't an easy issue for me. There is good being done. Perhaps we should be sure there are rules on how OUR money is being used by the Catholic Church? Like how we tell Planned Parenthood how they can use OUR money?

There should be many question we ponder now, like the future of our financial relationships with churches.

And being sure that government at the local, state and federal level support Planned Parenthood. Start talking to your politicians.