It’s obvious from comments that the Governor has made and David Fowler has made that they always intended to defund Planned Parenthood across the state. This has been in the works for a long time and been their dream for even longer.
So, here’s my question. It’s a question that would give me great pause if I were just a normal ‘pro-life’ person and it gives me minor pause as a pro-choice person. Why didn’t these guys have a big fundraiser for CCHS this spring? Then, heck, another one planned for right now? They know how much money it takes to provide free healthcare to poor people in Memphis because they know how much the Title X grant is–$400,000.
So, why didn’t they just raise that much money for CCHS in the spring? Let them start offering full-service healthcare that fits their philosophy? Give them a chance to gear up on their own terms for going after that Title X money? That way, there wouldn’t be this gap between when Planned Parenthood’s money ran out and CCHS was ready to see patients.
I mean, sure, $400,000 is a lot of money, but you get a lot of regular pro-life people giving $10, churches maybe taking up a special offering, and, oh, I don’t know, some rich businessman governor to cover the rest and it’s pretty easily taken care of. Shoot, maybe you’d only have to raise $200,000, since you’d just be covering the time from the spring fundraiser until CCHS took over the Title X program.
You think that between the Republican party apparatus and David Fowler’s network, they can’t raise $200,000?
So, why didn’t they?
Why not fund a pro-life free health clinic and let the people of Memphis decide which one they wanted to use while the Title X stuff was getting hashed out?
I have my theories why. But I’m curious as to whether this tickles uncomfortably at the back of any ‘pro-life’ person’s head? Are you, as a person who thinks abortion is wrong, starting to worry that, for folks like Fowler and Haslam, this is more about punishing political enemies than helping women have healthy children?
I mean, there’s David Fowler, crowing about what a great victory this is, apparently completely unbothered by people not having access to needed healthcare right now.
Just makes you wonder what their agenda is, exactly.