Arizona Gov. Brewer bans state funds for Planned Parenthood

Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ)

As if being a racist and incompetent liar weren’t enough to her credit, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) now wants everyone to know she’s a mindless demagogue about women’s reproductive health as well:

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill banning abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving money through the state, her office said in a statement.

The Republican-backed Whole Woman's Health Funding Priority Act cuts off funding for family planning and health services delivered by Planned Parenthood clinics and other organizations offering abortions.

"By signing this measure into law I stand with the majority of Americans who oppose the use of taxpayer funds for abortion," Brewer said in a statement.

Don’t you just love those Orwellian names Republicans have such a knack for? The “Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act”. One has to wonder how banning crucial funding for reproductive services and other healthcare procedures can reasonably be considered a “priority” – or how it somehow makes women “whole”. (Because having an abortion leaves a woman incomplete if they can’t fulfill their God-ordained purpose of harboring a fetus, I suppose.)

Of course, there’s not even a point anymore in mentioning how Planned Parenthood already doesn’t use government funds for abortions, which only comprise a whopping 3% of all medical services they offer, is there?

And naturally, leave it to a demagogue to pass ill-advised policies that – completely unexpectedly! – end up screwing everyone over:

But officials at Planned Parenthood Arizona, the state's largest abortion provider, said the law means that thousands of women in the state may now go without life-saving cancer screenings, birth control and basic health care.

"We are most concerned about the women and men who could be forced to go without health care as a result of this bill," Bryan Howard, Planned Parenthood Arizona's president and CEO, said in a prepared statement.

For some reason, stripping a large chunk of crucial funding used for important (non-abortion-related) medical services relied on by thousands is apparently going to lead to devastating healthcare shortages. Who could possibly have predicted that?

Republicans and anti-choicers are so hellbent on completely removing abortion from the healthcare repertoire that they simply don’t care how the needy and underprivileged get trampled in the process. That’s not a bug; it’s a feature – and the codified stance of every Republican leader in the country.

Tags: Jan Brewer • Arizona • Planned Parenthood • women's health