Lizz Winstead: If You Don't Support Health Care for Women, How Can You Call Yourself Pro-Life
David Shuster filling in for Keith Olbermann on Countdown this Wednesday evening spoke to comedian and Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead about the dust up with the Susan G. Komen foundation's decision to pull their funding from Planned Parenthood. Lizz has been out there doing terrific work trying to raise money for Planned Parenthood for some time now and she didn't mince any words when it came to her feelings on the recent assault on the group from the right.
WINSTEAD: Well, I think she said it herself when she was running for governor when she said, "I don't support the mission of Planned Parenthood." And the mission of Planned Parenthood is to provide affordable heath care for low-income women. And, if you don't support that mission, I really don't know how you can call yourself pro-life in the least.
And I think it's very suspect that, within the last year, this woman who was running for governor — who got Sarah Palin's endorsement, she was so conservative that she got the endorsement of Palin, — ran for Governor of Georgia the same year this legislation comes to be in Congress. And Susan Komen's new edict is "we can't support any organization that has legislation before Congress that's investigative."
Where are those dots? How do those connect? It does seem like — conservative person needed to put a piece of legislation in place so that Susan Komen could conveniently withhold their funding. It might sound tinfoil-hat-y. But I would like to, at least, know that there is not connection, or, if there is, I'd like to know that too.
Lizz has a new article in The Guardian with more you can read here -- By defunding Planned Parenthood, the Susan G Komen Foundation betrays women.
Full transcript below the fold.
SHUSTER: Women's health has now become the latest casualty in the right's war against Planned Parenthood.
In our number-one story in the "Countdown" — National breast-cancer organization Susan G. Komen For the Cure announced yesterday that it's breaking off its partnership with reproductive-health center Planned Parenthood. The move will eliminate financial grants for breast-cancer screenings and education programs that hundreds of thousands of low-income and uninsured women rely on at Planned Parenthood health centers around the country.
Komen insists the cut in funding is not political, saying it is merely following a new policy against funding groups under investigation. A congressional audit of Planned Parenthood was launched last September by Republican Representative Cliff Stearns of Florida, to determine whether public money was spent on abortions over the past decade.
Conveniently, the halt of grants to Planned Parenthood comes less than a year after Komen hired its new vice president, Karen Handel. In 2010, Handel launched an aggressively anti-abortion platform in her failed bid for Georgia governor, writing in a campaign blog posted at the time, "Let me be clear, since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood."
Many in the right demonize Planned Parenthood, painting it strictly as a abortion provider to incite anger among pro-life constituents and gain support for federal aid cuts, even though abortions are funded largely through the Title X and the Title 10 and Medicaid programs. Furthermore, according to independent analysis, 90 percent of the services at Planned Parenthood are unrelated to abortion.
Komen's actions spurred fierce responses from some Democrats on the Hill yesterday, with Senator Patty Murray writing in a press release, "At the heart of this issue is the shameful 'investigation' of Planned Parenthood by House Republicans trying to score political points and appease their extreme right-wing base."
Patrick Hurd, CEO of the Planned Parenthood in Southeastern Virginia that receives a Komen grant, and husband of Betsy Hurd, a breast cancer patient, told the AP, "Cancer doesn't care if you're pro-choice, anti-choice, progressive, conservative. Victims of cancer could care less about people's politics."
Let's bring in Lizz Winstead, comedienne, co-creator of "The Daly Show" and author of "Lizz Free or Die" essays. Lizz, we appreciate your time tonight.
LIZZ WINSTEAD: Thanks, David.
SHUSTER: So, many in the right wing are — in the media — the right-wing media are applauding the Komen foundation, included Erick Erickson, CNN contributor and blogger at "Red State."
He wrote yesterday, "As a result of this announcement, the left has gone on the attack," urging readers to send their donation to Komen for cutting off Planned Parenthood funding. What kind of message is the right sending with this sort of reaction?
WINSTEAD: Well, I think she said it herself when she was running for governor when she said, "I don't support the mission of Planned Parenthood." And the mission of Planned Parenthood is to provide affordable heath care for low-income women. And, if you don't support that mission, I really don't know how you can call yourself pro-life in the least.
And I think it's very suspect that, within the last year, this woman who was running for governor — who got Sarah Palin's endorsement, she was so conservative that she got the endorsement of Palin, — ran for Governor of Georgia the same year this legislation comes to be in Congress. And Susan Komen's new edict is "we can't support any organization that has legislation before Congress that's investigative."
Where are those dots? How do those connect? It does seem like — conservative person needed to put a piece of legislation in place so that Susan Komen could conveniently withhold their funding. It might sound tinfoil-hat-y. But I would like to, at least, know that there is not connection, or, if there is, I'd like to know that too.
SHUSTER: Well, and we're not talking about a Justice Department criminal investigation.
WINSTEAD: That's right.
SHUSTER: — civil investigation. It's one Republican in Congress. It's not that difficult to launch an investigation if you're a member of Congress.
WINSTEAD: Well, and the thing is, David, Planned Parenthood — we've seen the assault on Planned Parenthood. They have to submit so much stuff every year. Every year they submit their tax records.
So, basically, what this congressman is doing is forcing Planned Parenthood to re-submit this stuff at the cost of Planned Parenthood and the American taxpayer and that's what's really awful.
SHUSTER: Because of this decision by Komen, their Connecticut affiliate has withdrawn from the national organization. Obviously, yeah, Planned Parenthood is going to recoup. Will Komen recover?
WINSTEAD: I'm not so concerned about Komen. If Komen is making this decision, I really feel like — I'm for Planned Parenthood. I'm pro-Planned Parenthood and what they do. If Komen wants to shoot themselves in the foot —
As a — right before I went on, one of your producers came up to me and said, "Planned Parenthood's raised $650,000 in a 24-hour period." I believe that the Komen grant, last year, was about $680,000 — between $650,000 and $680,000 — I don't know the exact number.
What we need to do now is — I'm tired of waking up every day and having this assault on women's heath care and wondering who we're going to pull the rug out from under today. So, I think this is a wake-up call to all women that supporting women's health care, and affordable women's heath care, is something that we have to do every day. You know, like, wipe our butts and go to the gym.
SHUSTER: Planned Parenthood, as you mentioned — $680,000 last year from Komen, $580,000 the year before. As you just mentioned, they've raised, already, more than that. A lot of folks, though, don't realize that the Komen foundation, in 2010, they raised in over 400 million dollars.
WINSTEAD: $400 million.
SHUSTER: So, in other words, they're cutting off such a small — such a small part of that just to make a political point.
WINSTEAD: Well, the small part is .016, .016 is what they were giving to Planned Parenthood, they cut off to make a political point. I don't know how you can look at this as any other thing but a political point.
You know, this is about breast cancer, this is about making sure that women can be well. How do you say you're pro-life if you are taking away money to help women be well? One hundred and seventy thousand women got breast cancer exams because of the Komen money. Now more will, but it's because women have stepped up and said, "Whoa."
And what's interesting is, I don't make any bones about how I feel politically about things, and I have been very vocal on Twitter, all through the night, actually. I have not gotten one person in my twitter stream — and I always get haters — not one person came in and said, "How dare you, how dare you take on these people?" Because people know.
And, in fact, this documentary, oddly enough, launching tomorrow, that's called, "Pink Ribbon Inc." And it's about looking at corporatization of charity and they have really looked into the Komen foundation and others to see what this is about.
SHUSTER: There are so many women who participate in the Race for the Cure — the march where they put on the pink and we saw the pictures right there. Do you think, perhaps, this an opportunity for Planned Parenthood to remind everybody who participates in this race who says, "Yes, we need more screening, we need more preventative tests," that — well, that's what Planned Parenthood was doing.
WINSTEAD: That's what Planned Parenthood was doing. And they have the facilities to do it, they have the infrastructure to do it. They are already in your neighborhoods and your towns providing it in strategic locations that are accessible to people.
So, to pull it out, where is that money going to go? To more pink toasters? To more awareness campaigns? Guess what? We're aware there's breast cancer, and now we're aware that Susan Komen really doesn't care about finding a cure, they care about finding corporate sponsors to slap that stupid ribbon on.
SHUSTER: Lizz Winstead. Lizz, thank you very much. We appreciate it.
WINSTEAD: Thanks, David.
SHUSTER: Lizz's radio program can be heard on weactradio.com and NDC at 1480AM.
The dots are there. The campaign against Planned Parenthood smells much like the campaign against Acorn. To paraphrase a song by Nirvana - "Smells like Right Wing Propaganda". It's just too slimey, too fishy. To claim that this isn't political, but to have an investigation in Congress by Republicans going on, is just too convenient - especially after the leader(s) of Komen has stated in the last few years that they'll stop sending funds to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood can be totally clean, and the Republicans can do investigation after investigation, giving Komen the excuse to claim that it isn't political. Everyone knows it's all trumped up, fabricated, harrassment.
Komen blew it. They had an organization that was non-political, and they politicized it. Maybe they were getting pressure from the right. But now they have people on the left in an uproar, and if they backtrack on their stated purpose of withdrawing funding to Planned Parenthood, they'll have the right wing really upset. They used to get support from both left and right. Now they have to choose one.
I'm encouraging my company to switch their support to some non-political charity that is more interested in health than politics.
About: "If You Don't Support Health Care for Women, How Can You Call Yourself Pro-Life?"
Very easily. "Pro life" is simply a buzz word from the neocon movement for rallying the base. It should not be read as "being in support of life". It should be read as "punishing slutty women".
The book "The Price of Right" discusses two parenting archetypes. The "Nurturing Parent" cultivates the good in children, tries to teach morality, and encourages a lateral society. It uses the term "parent" because the differences in gender are smoothed out. This tends to be the progressive parenting route.
The "Strict Father" punishes the bad in children, tries to teach rules, and encourages a hierarchical society. It uses the term "father" because it tends to be patriarchal. This tends to be the conservative parenting route.
The "Strict Father" teaches that people are inherently sinful, and badness must be subdued by punishment and strict rules. Evil is an externalized force that corrupts society, and must be subdues by punishment and strict rules. Morality becomes a fight against evil, becomes punishments and strict rules. The view is that if you don't punish evil, evil flourishes, and therefore you are evil by allowing evil to flourish.
This is why they are pro death penalty and against abortion. You can conquer evil by killing all the evil people. If people do bad things, you must punish them. If they are very bad, you should kill them so they can do no more evil.
Men and women have places in society, and these places must be obeyed. To do otherwise subverts society, breaks the rules, and lets in evil. This is why homosexuality and gender non-conformity are so dangerous to society, and why same sex marriage will lead to the collapse of society.
A woman's place is as the incubator of her husband's spawn. A woman should be subservient, as the Bible / Koran / Confucian writings tell us. If a woman uses her nether bits for her own benefit or wantonly, she is not being subservient and keeping her place. She is letting evil into society. Therefore she must be forced to fulfill her role as a baby incubator. That is her punishment. If she had no choice to begin with or dies in the process, that is Divine will and the way of nature, and not a woman's place to question.
Peace
that women will very soon no longer need men to procreate. The guy from Florida with the combover doesn't get that but it's true, undeniably true, so in the end it doesn't really matter what he or any other thumper believes....it just doesn't matter. Women will produce as they choose and then, eventually, DNA will disappear forever.
The reactionary faction of the duopoly are pro-life only until birth. After that life is viewed as expendable and collateral damage when it gets in the way of the greater good of the ever expanding free market corpoatocracy! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!
by mislabeling conservative politics. There's an enormous difference between bona fide conservative politics and rightwing theocratic politics that has taken over what once was the Republican party.
It's also wildly simplistic and wrong to label the pro-Komans as conservatives and anti-Komans as liberal. Koman's move against Planned Parenthood grants was unquestionably rightwing theocratic politics in action. That is not to say those who protested are liberals or Democrats. In the main, they were women who know the value of all PP's services and protested Koman's de-funding. Not because the politics didn't jibe. Because it was wrong. Wrong for millions of Koman donors who'd supported the fight against breast cancer for decades with no political agenda whatsoever, only to find out the organization was practicing partisan politics. No different than an outcry raised if, for example, The American Cancer Society or Red Cross began practicing blatant rightwing theocratic policy.
Breast cancer doesn't discriminate politically. That Koman now does is why millions are protesting that policy.
I'm really wanting to know what the real story is here because its just really hard for me to believe it has anything to do with investigations, or simple paperwork. There's gotta be more going on here, and I don't mean that in a conspiratorial way. The explanations given by Komen appear to be simple PR. /its hard not to read it as a political move on some part by a few people behind the scenes of Komen.
PP is taking potential profits from for-profit hospitals (in our old neighborhood it was the Catholic-run hospital).
Remember, too, if you stop the abortion, even to save the mother's life, then you are tapping into all those potential profits from treating both mother and child. After all, how much profit can you generate from a fetus: more if it is not aborted than if it is.
There are a lot of folks who don't understand what hard choices are about. They think anyone can come up with more money to give them if the cause is important enough, like health.
because I think it's all so obvious. Because it is.
Komen disgusts me. At the same time, Planned Parenthood is just an aspect of the fucked up health care system in the USA. If you had national health, you wouldn't need health care for poor women, because everyone would get healthcare. So, while I totally support PP (and have given them money and have used their health care services in the past when I couldn't afford a regular doctor), I also feel they shouldn't have jobs because the root issue is NATIONAL HEALTH CARE.
It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
-George Carlin
You can't be "pro-WAR" & "pro-GUN" and still call yourself "pro-LIFE".
(and I'd add to that now, "anti-Women's health".)
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
"pro-DEATH PENALTY."
me-oww!
How can you call yourself "pro-life" when you gleefully drop bombs on pregnant women and children all around the world and call it "collateral damage not worth caring about"?
But I think stenton24 hit the nail on the head too. Some "men", especially the type attracted to the GOP, are so scared of the fact that women CAN have children whenever they want without having to put up with the whiney "man boy" control freaks who call 24 hours a day to make sure their "women" are where they are expected to be and beat the heck out of them if they don't answer fast enough, like them, that they will try anything to stop women from having any kind of life at all.
All of us have met at least a few of these types of men in our lives. Even some of those who aren't physically abusive at least once show their contempt by making some ignorant remark about PMS or something.
"How can you call yourself "pro-life" when you gleefully drop bombs on pregnant women and children all around the world and call it "collateral damage not worth caring about"?"
Exactly.And don't forget about the HUNDREDS of tons of depleted uranium in weapons used by the US in Iraq. Headline: Depleted Uranium causes miscarriages.
When you speak to an anti-choice nutbag, make sure you use the term 'spontaneous abortion.' 'Miscarriage' won't make your point with a thickie.
me-oww!
Absolutely :)
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