20 where do we stand?17
A Crusade Against Safe, Legal Abortion
Over the past nine months politicians in at least 24 states have taken action or threatened to end access to care at Planned Parenthood.
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"There are now five separate congressional committees investigating Planned Parenthood and abortion in the U.S., including a newly created select committee created for that sole purpose. Congress has continued to investigate Planned Parenthood, despite public statements from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz that he has uncovered no wrongdoing after examining more than thousands pages of material provided by Planned Parenthood to his committee, which is conducting one of the investigations" (Planned Parenthood).
fastforward to Trump's America
In 2007, Vice President Mike Pence (then a member of Congress) introduces the first federal “defunding” legislation. The idea spread and in some instances, passed at the state level (take a wild guess as to which state...hint: if I were to give this state a Yelp review, I'd give it a lone star).​
Attacks on Planned Parenthood in the Last Decade
2007
2008-2012
2013
2015
Anti-abortion activists release a series of videos accusing Planned Parenthood staff of violating the law. The videos were eventually found to be doctored and debunked.
Another set of new videos surfaces, and yet again turn out to be deceitfully edited and false.
Defunding legislation passes both Houses of Congress by being attached to a budget reconciliation measure, only to be stopped by President Obama's veto. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood centers are target to an increase in violent attacks and threats across the country.
“I am interested in doing what we can, in the balance of this fiscal year, to end public funding of Planned Parenthood, specifically...”
—Mike Pence, 2011
(Politico)
The debate between those who wish to defund and those who don't is heated, hyperactive and ongoing. It seems as if every week there is a new development in the story of "Will Planned Parenthood Survive?" In the jet stream of information, voices and opinions offered by iPhone notifications, Facebook shares and CNN headlines, confusion is inevitable. So that raises the question: what is true?
