Five Facts, One Conclusion, One Opinion, One Prediction

Fact: Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has barred the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or the necessity of saving the life of the mother.

Fact: Senator Ted Cruz and many of his colleagues are threatening to end all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Fact: Any federal funds Planned Parenthood clinics receive are used to pay for care including birth control (except abortion), pap smears, cancer screening and early treatment, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

Fact: Republicans, by announcing their intent to strip federal funds for Planned Parenthood, are announcing their intent to deny funding for birth control, pap smears, cancer screening and early treatment, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections.

Fact: Two states’ Attorneys General, Indiana and Massachusetts, have already cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing in investigations prompted by the release of secretly recorded, deceptively edited anti-abortion propaganda produced by a fraudulently chartered nonprofit entity.

Conclusion: Republicans, willing to defund birth control, cancer screening, and testing and treatment for STIs to score political points on the basis of baseless and inflammatory claims made by people who have likely broken multiple laws, are neither the party of small government nor the party of law and order.

Opinion: Individuals, not the state, should be free to make their own decisions about their health and their lives, especially when it comes to the decision whether or when to bear children.

Prediction: On-the-brink-of-being-indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will hold a press conference about Planned Parenthood and use the words “baby parts,” but will not hold a press conference and use the words “I committed felony securities fraud.”

“Look! Over there! False allegations about someone else who is not me and who has not been indicted on felony charges! Pay no attention to meeeeee!”