A few days ago, another government shutdown was looming. A faction of conservative Republicans in Congress -- the self-described "Freedom Caucus" -- threatened to block a critical bill necessary to keep the entire U.S. government in operation if it included money for Planned Parenthood.
The immediate cause of the conservatives' anger was a series of secretly-recorded videos that appeared to show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the procurement of fetal tissue from women who had obtained abortions.
The abrupt resignation of Speaker John Boehner, who has spent much of the past five years trying to corral his fractious majority into a single voting bloc, seems to have forestalled a shutdown -- at least until the Christmas season. But the Right's assault on Planned Parenthood is far from over, making it important to separate fiction from fact in a debate that has become more and more politicized.
Let me be clear: These issues aren't easy. Reasonable people of good conscience and character can disagree over the morality of abortion, as well as the ethics of using fetal tissue for medical research. But three vital points are missing from the firestorm.
First, lost amid the grandstanding is the fact that fetal tissue research is legal under federal law, as are defined payments for fetal tissue that is provided to researchers. If Congress wants to reconsider the legality of this research, it should do so in an honest way, grounded in law and science -- not by manufacturing a debate over Planned Parenthood funding.
Second, under cover of the uproar over the surreptitious videos, the Freedom Caucus called for an end to all funding for Planned Parenthood and the services it provides unless the organization agreed to stop providing all abortion services. But let's get the facts straight: Planned Parenthood provides a multitude of necessary health services, including general health care, gynecological care, men's health care, contraceptive services, STD testing and treatment, and abortion care. Abortion care -- from which fetal tissue used for research could come -- accounts for only about 3 percent of the health care services that Planned Parenthood provides.
And there is a third fact that the "Freedom Caucus" never mentions -- the abortion care that Planned Parenthood provides is not paid for by the federal government. Planned Parenthood receives federal monies through two main streams: Title X of the Public Health Service Act and Medicaid. Title X already prohibits government funds from being used for programs that provide abortion services, and another law -- the Hyde Amendment -- prohibits Medicaid funding from being used for abortion services except in very limited circumstances. Government funding simply is not being used to fund Planned Parenthood's provision of abortion services.
The facts are these: The majority of Americans need and use the very services that Planned Parenthood provides -- and the very services that the Freedom Caucus seeks to deny. We know that at least "99 percent of women aged 15-44 who have ever had sexual intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method."
We know that there are 6.6 million pregnancies in the U.S each year, and that roughly half of the pregnancies are unintended. We know that approximately one-third of American women will have an abortion. And we know that 1 in 5 American women has used Planned Parenthood's services.
Americans recognize this reality, and do not support using women's health as a political football. Indeed, a recent poll revealed that 7 in 10 registered voters (including 56 percent of Republican voters polled) oppose shutting down the government over the issue of Planned Parenthood funding.
If we want to really discuss the ethics of abortion, and of fetal tissue research, let's have a conversation based on science, law and fact. Political maneuvering and grandstanding do not give these issues -- or women -- the respect they deserve.