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Nurses Activism

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I see in the news that anti-choice organizations are planning demonstrations today at Planned Parenthood facilities around the US to support GOP plans to defund PP.

Of course, my first thought was to grab a sign (and my, ummm, "kittyhat"!) and head for my local facility to show my support for PP, but I also see in the news that PP offices are asking that supporters not show up at the facilities to counter-protest (because they don't want the crowds of protesters any larger or more chaotic than necessary as women are trying to get in and out for services).

Some communities are planning counter-demonstrations in other venues, but I haven't been able to find any information about any events planned in my city.

So, I've decided to set aside the time planned for the anti-choice demonstration in my city today to contact all my elected representatives, from the White House down to my state legislators, and Tom Price at DHHS, to remind them that I support PP and am strongly opposed to any efforts to restrict women's reproductive rights or Planned Parenthood's access to public healthcare dollars as a legitimate healthcare provider.

I hope PP supporters here will consider doing the same, and spread the word to people you know. I hope people all over the country will have the same thought. Wouldn't it be great if, while comparatively small groups of protesters are standing out in the cold and snow with their signs, huge numbers of Americans were flooding mail boxes and switchboards around the country with messages of support for PP, women's health, and reproductive rights?

Specializes in All areas of Critical Care, ED, PACU, Pre-Op, BH,.
pmabraham said:
When the human unborn baby gets a choice, then we can talk pro-choice or anti-choice. The opposite of pro-life is pro-death, and death is what happens when a human life ends. As someone who finds it pure hypocrisy concerning those who have been born fighting for the right to determine whether one unborn child has value and can be born or another has no value and should be killed. As such, I do hope that Planned Parenthood does not receive a single taxpayer penny.

You need to become educated on how the funding works for PP. Not one penny of taxpayer dollars goes to help with any abortions. Look up the Hyde Amendment. Are you actually against people getting education, medical assistance with sex ED, birth control etc? Because that is the primary function that PP does. You have bought into the GOP right wing propaganda hype! Very sad.

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Specializes in All areas of Critical Care, ED, PACU, Pre-Op, BH,.
pmabraham said:
operations, so you believe there are no alternatives to Planned Parenthood whose main business model is killing unborn children?

Again, you really need to get educated. You are so confused by the GOP right wing propaganda lies. It is really sad. No tax dollars pay for any abortions. Learn what the Hyde Amendment is.

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Specializes in All areas of Critical Care, ED, PACU, Pre-Op, BH,.
hppygr8ful said:

I totally concur with this statement. As a realist I know abortion isn't going away but Planned Parenthood should not be funded by federal tax dollars. There are a ton of filthy rich liberals who can fund the organization without even making a dent in their pockets.

Hppy

Well go research The Hyde Amendment. You will discover it isn't paid by our tax dollars! Learn the facts before posting right wing propaganda. A lot of middle class liberals and moderates are willingly donating their $$ to PP to help poor women obtain abortions should they need it!

Hate is ugly.

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Specializes in All areas of Critical Care, ED, PACU, Pre-Op, BH,.
Daisy4RN said:
No, I don't think that the answer is to stop all Medicaid funding. I just think that PP does more harm than good sometimes and I just wanted to provide the flip side of the coin. I think that it is too easy for a young girl/woman to go to PP and get an abortion without proper counseling (a decision that will impact her for the rest of her life). I also think (based on the number of abortions in the US per year) that many use abortion as a form of birth control. As with any government funded (taxpayer money) program there is fraud and abuse (If you work in a hospital you probably see it). In my opinion, if my money is being used, I want to cut that fraud/abuse/waste of the system. Also, I do not consider Military in the same category as welfare, completely different. I am not saying that poor people should not get care but I have personally seen the abuse of the system by some poor and/or illegals. Some procedures are elective (abortions in most cases) and I don't want to work hard for my money just to have it so freely wasted, or for elective procedures. People who pay for their own insurance also have limitations (ie access to care). As for PP acting as primary care in rural areas, if this is the only care available then I would not want people to have nothing. I just think that PP needs less government money and more accountability.

Well the fact of it is this: You have NEVER SEEN "ILLEGALS" OBTAIN ANY GOVERNMENT BENEFITS! Because they are not able to qualify for them! Secondly our tax dollars do NOT pay for any abortion from PP. Go read what the Hyde Amendment is! This prohibits that from happening! Third, approximately $36.00 of each one of us Americans pay each year for ALL social programs! That is it! We pay so much more for the Corporate Welfare and it will be going up with Trump! Because he is going to be giving them even bigger tax breaks now! Learn the facts. Not right wing propaganda.

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Specializes in All areas of Critical Care, ED, PACU, Pre-Op, BH,.
TriciaJ said:
We can be pro-choice without mandating taxpayers to pony up. If everyone who gives a damn would send money they'd still be funded without forcing people to go against their beliefs.

Defunding is not the same thing as outlawing abortions.

Go learn about The Hyde Amendment! OMG!

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suzil said:
Go learn about The Hyde Amendment! OMG!

LOL. Nothing is going to change this ignorance. I think people that have the desire to control or limit others healthcare should not be allowed to be nurses. It contradicts the central dogma of nursing. It's okay and natural to debate the origin of personhood. But limiting others rights to fair and equal healthcare because of out of control fanaticism, 99% of the time based on religion? And then to make harmful decisions due to willful ignorance about Healthcare? For a nurse, I find this absurd. That's no different than refusing to give your patient's blood because you are a jehovah's witness, other than it's indirect and harms many people instead of one. I think all nurses should be required to take ethics classes. And then nursing school should assess students for competency in terms of healthy and mature views regarding ethics. These "destroy PP" crazed "nurses" should have never been let to set foot in a nursing school without cultivating an adult moral perspective.

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suzil said:
Well the fact of it is this: You have NEVER SEEN "ILLEGALS" OBTAIN ANY GOVERNMENT BENEFITS! Because they are not able to qualify for them! Secondly our tax dollars do NOT pay for any abortion from PP. Go read what the Hyde Amendment is! This prohibits that from happening! Third, approximately $36.00 of each one of us Americans pay each year for ALL social programs! That is it! We pay so much more for the Corporate Welfare and it will be going up with Trump! Because he is going to be giving them even bigger tax breaks now! Learn the facts. Not right wing propaganda.

I've never met a person who claimed to see abuse of medicaid who have actual examples. This person is obviously making **** up, because she is so dumb she said she saw "illegals" abusing the system. The ones who usually say this are lying or intentionally ignoring key peices to the story. It's middle /upper class selfishness that creates this mentality.

Getting on medicaid is incredibly difficult, and being on it is difficult. I had to wait months just to get a biopsy. I could not find a specialist to cover one of my needs, so I go hours away from where I live just to get care. I have to go to whatever doctor they choose, and resorted to going to an NP at Walmart because the MDs they assigned me were terrible. Everything is a challenge. What in God's name the "abuse" potential of medicaid? There is literally 0 incentive to abuse. And to think, this is how some of my caregivers thought of me while I was on it. Assume that if someone is willfully on medicaid, there is a sure reason, because no one in their right mind would choose to be on it if they could stand not to be.

As nurses, we aren't supposed to make assumptions about people based on limited information. And we are supposed to understand the cultural influence, nature v nurture, education level and other factors when trying understand this "abuse" of medicaid. We are the one profession that is supposed to understand this. You wanna judge ppl on medicaid, then choose another career. Nursing is not for you. Besides, how do you expect to get paid without medicaid, morons?

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operations said:
But really, you would really let people die of cancer to make a point? That isn't prolife, that's proreligion.

She was letting people die of cancer?

As to CA screeing (and womens health too for that matter) Medicaid clinics, county health clinics and free medical clinics dwarf what PP does in that regard. It isn't even close. If PP disappeared today, as far as those two issues go there would be no crisis at all. PP's contribution to those things is really negligible. I'm grateful for you that you found help there. Not trying to be callous, but in the grand scheme of things, there are better ways to screen for illness in low income families than PP.

It would be more difficult finding a provider for abortion, though.

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offlabel said:
She was letting people die of cancer?

As to CA screeing (and womens health too for that matter) Medicaid clinics, county health clinics and free medical clinics dwarf what PP does in that regard. It isn't even close. If PP disappeared today, as far as those two issues go there would be no crisis at all. PP's contribution to those things is really negligible. I'm grateful for you that you found help there. Not trying to be callous, but in the grand scheme of things, there are better ways to screen for illness in low income families than PP.

It would be more difficult finding a provider for abortion, though.

And who put you in charge of deciding where people should go for their healthcare?

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Specializes in All areas of Critical Care, ED, PACU, Pre-Op, BH,.
offlabel said:
She was letting people die of cancer?

As to CA screeing (and womens health too for that matter) Medicaid clinics, county health clinics and free medical clinics dwarf what PP does in that regard. It isn't even close. If PP disappeared today, as far as those two issues go there would be no crisis at all. PP's contribution to those things is really negligible. I'm grateful for you that you found help there. Not trying to be callous, but in the grand scheme of things, there are better ways to screen for illness in low income families than PP.

It would be more difficult finding a provider for abortion, though.

Actually PP does so much more at a fraction of what other clinics and doctor's offices charge or cost the insurance companies. Also not all cities, towns have free health clinics. You are terribly out of touch with the huge contribution that PP makes with healthcare today and prior years! Women, men and young people - they cover the gamut.

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suzil said:
Actually PP does so much more at a fraction of what other clinics and doctor's offices charge or cost the insurance companies. Also not all cities, towns have free health clinics. You are terribly out of touch with the huge contribution that PP makes with healthcare today and prior years! Women, men and young people - they cover the gamut.

OK. I'll take everything you write here at face value. Granted. And I'll also take PP's statement that abortion is a fraction of what they do, really an insignificant part of their services as a whole. Granted.

There is currently a big on-line fund raising campaign going on for PP asking for financial assistance to continue their mission.

So here's my question, if they get no tax dollars for abortions, and abortion is such an insignificant part of what PP does and it is such a divisive issue and one that is the only impediment from widespread support from across the board, why not just drop that service altogether? It is more of a problem than a benefit to PP and their mission, isn't it? If women's health care is so important to PP it would be a no brainer just to focus on the 97% of the care they offer and increase their support by orders of magnitude.

Why is abortion so important that PP would keep it to the detriment of everything else it does?

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I've never met a person who claimed to see abuse of medicaid who have actual examples. This person is obviously making **** up, because she is so dumb she said she saw "illegals" abusing the system. The ones who usually say this are lying or intentionally ignoring key peices to the story. It's middle /upper class selfishness that creates this mentality.

Getting on medicaid is incredibly difficult, and being on it is difficult. I had to wait months just to get a biopsy. I could not find a specialist to cover one of my needs, so I go hours away from where I live just to get care. I have to go to whatever doctor they choose, and resorted to going to an Np at Walmart because the MDs they assigned me were terrible. Everything is a challenge. What in God's name the "abuse" potential of medicaid? There is literally 0 incentive to abuse. And to think, this is how some of my caregivers thought of me while I was on it. Assume that if someone is willfully on medicaid, there is a sure reason, because no one in their right mind would choose to be on it if they could stand not to be.

In addition, a number of states have Estate Recovery for Medicaid.

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