Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy faced off against Sens. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar at a CNN town hall Monday night, just hours after their last-ditch effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed.
Earlier that evening, Sen. Susan Collins had become the third Republican to publicly reject the Graham-Cassidy repeal effort but at Monday night’s debate, Graham vowed to “press on.”
Graham and Cassidy pitched their plan, while Sanders, a Vermont Independent, used the debate to articulate his single-payer proposal, while Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, joined him in defending the gains of Obamacare and picking apart Graham-Cassidy.
During the 2016 Democratic contest for the party’s presidential nomination, Sanders battled politically with Planned Parenthood, labeling them the “establishment” after they endorsed his rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The organization had never before given an endorsement in a Democratic primary.
Yet on Monday night, Sanders leaned in hard toward his support of Planned Parenthood specifically and abortion rights in general. “They want to tell 2.5 million women in the United States of America who today choose Planned Parenthood to get their health care they can’t do that, because they want to defund Planned Parenthood,” Sanders noted in his opening remarks.
Sanders’s Medicare for All bill pushes for women’s autonomy by repealing the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funding for abortions. That would make it the most far-reaching Democratic health care legislation when it comes to reproductive freedom.
Klobuchar, who also opposed Graham-Cassidy, noted one in five women gets their health care from Planned Parenthood.
“The bill changes what are called essential benefits, and that was one of the positive changes that was made with Obamacare,” Klobuchar said. “And what that said is maternity care has to be offered, … contraceptives have to be offered. This changes that. And 50 million women aren’t going to be very happy about that, right?”
A preliminary Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Graham-Cassidy plan estimated that the deficit would be reduced by $133 billion between 2017 and 2026, but “millions” would lose comprehensive health insurance.
Even if Sanders hadn’t begun with Planned Parenthood, CNN made sure it would come up. A woman at the town hall told a story about how Planned Parenthood discovered cysts and benign tumors in her ovaries, adding that without the organization’s care, it was probable she would not have been able to have children.
“Why would you advocate for a bill that would block women like me from the essential care that helped me to become a mother, provides affordable cancer screenings for thousands and thousands of people, especially for those who live in the many parts of this country that are not served by community health centers?” she asked the senators.
Cassidy claimed most Planned Parenthood settings are in urban areas that have “lots of OB/GYNs.”
“Now, as it turns out, the folks who don’t have access to those cancer screenings live in rural areas,” Cassidy said. “So the idea is that we want someone to have to drive — a lower income person drive three hours to a Planned Parenthood facility there to get her screening, or would we rather take that money and put it back in the rural area to allow her to get her health care there?”
In fact, there are medically underserved areas outside of rural America, but either way, Planned Parenthood shot back at Cassidy during the debate.
Fact check on @BillCassidy: more than 50% of Planned Parenthood health centers are in medically underserved areas. #HealthcareDebate
— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) September 26, 2017
In addition to abortion services, patients also rely on Planned Parenthood for pregnancy services, men’s health services, HIV testing, and STD treatment, among other routine health matters.
Graham responded to the woman’s question about stripping essential care from women by invoking thoroughly debunked videos from 2015, which anti-abortion activists claimed depicted Planned Parenthood illegally trying to sell fetal body parts.
“So all I can say about this debate about Planned Parenthood, a lot of Americans that were pretty upset when they saw the videos of selling body parts of aborted children,” Graham said.
The videos sparked a wave of state investigations that found no evidence of Planned Parenthood selling or profiting off fetal tissue. Instead, a Texas grand jury even turned around and instead indicted the conservative provocateurs.
Sanders pointed out that his Republican colleagues are “really into choice” but continue their crusade to defund Planned Parenthood.
“Well, 2.5 million women have made a choice, and the choice they have made, as you have made, is that they want to go to Planned Parenthood to get their health care,” Sanders said. “And generally speaking, most people think that Planned Parenthood does an excellent job.”
For Klobuchar, one problem came from the dearth of women in the Senate — and on the stage.
“I love these guys,” she said, “but maybe if we added a few more women senators …”
Bernie Sanders Can’t Shake His Imperial Piggishness
https://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-cant-shake-his-imperial-piggishness
I have no problem with PP except for their idea that abortion is somehow a “Right”.
Frankly, my dear, if a woman chooses an abortion, it’s none of your business.
Who ever said anything about an abortion being a right? Healthcare plans rarely cover abortions…
As for Planned Parenthood, their leadership has turned the organization into a democratic party front in the same way the NRA is a republican front group. Same with the SEIU which supported Walmart Clinton in the primaries. Unfortunately, the leadership of front groups put party politics above the mission and needs of their organizations.
Despite their leadership, Planned Parenthood is still doing righteous work which Bernie knows about and has always supported.
Yeah remember when Cecile Richards advocated aiming semi-automatic abortions at “dangerous” looking people. Yep. The same!
So…produce the link.
Problem with Planned Parenthood is they did not allow the membership to vote on who to support in last democratic primary. The PP leadership chose Clinton without allowing it’s membership to voice it’s opinion. That happened with many organizations, the membership had no voice. Not very democratic.
Nobody but Walmart Board of Directors member Hillary, Gloria Steinem and Ms. Herbalife Albright says that Bernie doesn’t care about women. They also said that young women don’t care about women’s issues because they only want Bernie boys.
” “So all I can say about this debate about Planned Parenthood, a lot of Americans that were pretty upset when they saw the videos of selling body parts of aborted children,” Graham said.”
Technically this is not a lie in the sense that it is true that a lot of Americans were pretty upset.
However, it is lying by omission. Is lying by omission allowed by Graham’s religion?
As Republican Obamacare repeal collapses, Democrats push pro-corporate “compromise”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/09/27/heal-s27.html
Just some plain facts:
1-About 40-60% of all pregnancies in NYC end in abortion, predominantly in amongst African Americans.
2-the only ethnic group to see a decline in public school enrollment are African Americans.
3-in sub Sahara a child has about a 90% chance of making it to age five years. Maternal mortality is about 0.5% per pregnancy.
In other words a child in the womb of a mother in sub Sahara has about 2x greater chance at survival that a similar child in NYC.
It’s ethnic cleansing pure and simple by abortion, eugenics on a massive scale. Bernie and friends just want more. Also they want to use baby body parts to rejuvenate aging liberal baby boomers.
This is the worse form of slavery mankind has know. Live a very short life to become a body part or dog food.
According to Gutmacher, less than 1% of abortions in the US are because of forced sex. Most are simply a form of contraception. Babies are just disposable throwaways of industries that promote sex as a commodity or entertainment. Brave new world.
Use of condoms and birth control pills is definitely preferable to abortion. Termination of pregnancy under 20 weeks is also acceptable to me, though, less desirable than getting pregnant in the first place.
I think deciding to have an abortion is a hard choice not to be taken lightly. I think it’s better for a woman to end her pregnancy if ahe doesn’t feel equipped to be a mother. I’m concerned about the quality of life of the child, of the mother or father don’t have the time, money, or resources to raise a well-adjusted, flourishing adult. If we truly care for human life, let’s make sure we we don’t start more wars, let’s make sure to tackle homelessness, let’s make sure to guarantee healthcare to all people, let’s make sure that we have social programs that help feed the hungry and the poor, let’s not have the highest incarceration rates in the world, let’s stop police brutality.
Well said!
No one is forcing anyone to have abortions. Considering that human overpopulation is the biggest problem on the planet, including people of ALL COLORS, the more abortions the better. I agree with Jose that birth control is preferable to abortion, but it’s not a baby, it’s a fetus, and it’s the woman’s choice — or at least it SHOULD be the woman’s choice — until it’s born.
So did you have a choice of not to be aborted?
Was your mother wrong not to abort you since your presence contributes to overpopulation?
Or are you more worried that the world will be overpopulated by them other “poor” people of “color”?
Your comments are idiotic. Sure I’m glad to be alive, but I wouldn’t be sorry if I weren’t born. And what part of all colors of people overpopulating the planet do you not get? The overpopulation problem has nothing to do with skin color unless you’re a racist.
“Al”, buddy, it’s still none of your business, and you HATE that.
The Democrats’ fraudulent opposition to Trumpcare
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/06/21/medi-j21.html
I doubt their opposition to Trumpcare is fraudulent. It’s just that their embrace of Obamacare and opposition to single-payer is fraudulent in terms of the real needs of the American people. It’s a good article that you cite overall, though.
The Democratic Party’s deceitful game
http://www.salon.com/2010/02/23/democrats_34
Everyone read:
At site of Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech Sanders declares his allegiance to US imperialism
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/09/26/sand-s26.html
Old sheepdogs are at risk to develop vision problems but they are still lovely ;^)
Well, here we part ways. You can’t blame Sanders for the aftermath of the Afghanistan war when the Taliban was harboring Bin Laden. He couldn’t have known or be made responsible for those things that happened over which he had no control. His “allegiance to US imperialism” however can be questioned. At the very least, Sanders is a breath of fresh air compared to what we have now in foreign policy. The fact that he questions Israel is enough reassurance that he needs to be listened to.
I saw it online. Bernie was almost strangled by his yellow cowl.
The Intercept didn’t cover it for some reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhPWcLzONxE