Per last Friday’s “5 Minutes for Families”:

Despite being Arizona’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood claims this bill will deny women access to other medical procedures including cancer screenings and women’s health services. Once again, this is not true. The bill does not reduce the funding by one penny – it simply prioritizes the funding to healthcare providers who can provide more comprehensive services. There are plenty of options for women to access care in Arizona.

Herrod is referring to HB2800, which removes AHCCCS funding from Planned Parenthood. According to Bryan Howard, PPAZ’s president, 65000 Arizonans would lose Planned Parenthood as their health care provider. Many Medicaid recipients choose to go to Planned Parenthood clinics because they know they will get respectful and comprehensive health care, which of course includes sexual health. The thought of which sends the puckered-up prudes over at Center for Arizona Policy into a Defcon 1 state of pearl clutching. And make no mistake, this is all about sex. Anti-choicers can’t stop all the ladies from getting their slut pills at Planned Parenthood but there’s generally a clear path for them to make it difficult for poor women who are on public health care. And h/t to my Facebook friend Todd who sent me this link to the Kaiser Foundation’s State Health Facts about Arizona. You can see that 51% of Arizona women are already living in a “Primary Health Professional Shortage Area”. You can also see that 15% of Arizona women aged 18-64 have gone at least 3 years without a PAP test. So where are all those “healthcare providers who can provide more comprehensive services” (whatever that means to Cathi Herrod) going to come from to fill the void left by Planned Parenthood providers who are no longer available to low income women?

Oh, and can we just stop with the “don’t want to fund abortion” business? It should be obvious to anyone with a sentient brain cell that anti-choicers hate pregnancy prevention even more than they hate abortion. At least with abortion they get to scream at the harlot as she enters the clinic. But women who use contraception are just totally getting being unpunished for their sluttiness and that is simply unacceptable to the misogynist prudes who make up the bulk of the so-called “pro-life” movement.