In my opinion, the battles over birth control and Planned Parenthood are primarily neither political nor religious. This is an issue of equality for women. This is an issue of women’s rights: Planned Parenthood is the most important private provider of reproductive health care for women in the United States.
- Karen DeCrow
One of the most contentious- and most dishonest- arguments in the public sphere today is over Planned Parenthood. For some reason, the idea of an organization dedicated to the health of women is controversial. OK, so 3% of the services PP provides are “abortion-related;” that’s enough to make the organization the very personification of Evil Incarnate?
Or is it just that Right-wing ideologues recognize that they can’t lose by demonizing PP? They know that people believe what they want to believe, regardless of inconvenient things like “facts” or “truth,” things that only losers and Liberals concern themselves with.
American Taliban Presidential candidate (and heir apparent to Jesus’ throne) Mike Huckabee is convinced (or is trying to convince Americans) that God will bless America ONLY when PP is destroyed. Yes, for only when women are once again rightfully the property of men and only when women lose the silly notion that they should control their own bodies (Godwin alert: See Mein Kampf) will America be restored to its status as blessed by God.
Sensible people (faith leaders, f’rinstance) know that a world without PP would be to invite a large-scale health catastrophe…not that the American Taliban has ever really cared about the well-being of women. It’s about ensuring women no longer have the right to make their own decisions about their own bodies- that’s something best left to White Conservative Christian males.
Speaking to a crowd at the Iowa State Fair, the former Arkansas governor said that the “steering mechanism” for the country needed to be based on “the laws of nature’s god.”
Of course, it somehow escapes mentioning that the “laws of nature’s god” seem to magically dovetail perfectly with Huckabee’s judgmental, intolerant hyperreligiosity. And that he seems to believe that he is the vessel through which his God speaks. The sheer arrogance and self-importance of that attitude aside, that Huckabee could presume to speak for an angry, vindictive, mean-spirited God who hates women and views them as the property of men seems just a wee bit too convenient and hypocritical, don’tchathink? It’s fascinating how ultra-Conservative Christian men seem to be able to define the role and rights of women in ways that break to their advantage, as if God expressly intended for a woman to be their servant and caddy.
That viewpoint helps explain why PP is viewed as such a clear and present danger by so many in the American Taliban. When selectively edited videos can be used to justify demonizing an organization dedicated to the health of women can be used against PP with no sense of irony or dishonesty, anyone disagreeing with the prevailing narrative is, of course, “in bed with the Devil.” As if standing for honesty and respect for women is somehow anti-Christian.
It’s interesting that so many on the Far Right are convinced their God has bestowed upon them the right- nay, the duty- to determine what’s best for women. That their concern has nothing to do with the best interests of women and everything to do with controlling them should be self-evident. Authoritarian males using God to justify controlling what women do with their bodies…I could think of a historical parallel for that, but I’d hate to set off anyone’s Godwin meter. Still, a thinking person would have to admit that this sort of authoritarian social control doesn’t speak well of a society that celebrates freedom.
The desire of the American Taliban to keep women under their thumbs is as despicable as it us un-Christian…not that any of these folks recognize that they’ve twisted the teachings of their Lord and Savior to justify their own selfish ends.
It’s been said that religion (or was it supporting the Green Bay Packers) is the last refuge of a scoundrel. The hypocritical, hyper-religious desire to destroy Planned Parenthood represents a clear and present danger to the freedom of women to make their own decisions about their health and reproductive functions. People like Mike Huckabee and Greg Gutfeld won’t be happy until this country represents something out of The Handmaid’s Tale. That’s not what a free society is supposed to be about…unless you define “freedom” as “the right to force others to live and be judged by your narrow moral framework.”
Women deserve better.
