The following story comes from the Washington Post. I think it is particularly important to understand the arguments we make versus the actual facts. Many people make blind statements without presenting the true context of a situation. This is not an outright support of any agency. I am simply saying that if any politician is going to argue for spending then they better fight over $100 or $200 dollars versus a few dollars!

Government Shutdown Explainer of the Day: The United States government will shut itself down in less than eight hours, unleashing a whole host of negative side effects, if Republicans and Democrats cannot resolve their budgetary differences.

One of the major, immutable sticking points appears to be government funding for reproductive health facilities, such as Planned Parenthood’s family planning clinics. Republicans are vehemently opposed to any agreement that doesn’t include the slashing of all federal funding (~$300 million/year) for women’s health care centers underTitle X — a public health program signed into law in 1970 by Richard Nixon.

Despite the paltry sum (the US spends nearly twice that much on war every day), and the fact that it is illegal under Title X for any federal money to be used to fund abortions, Republicans insist that no federal funds should be appropriated to organizations that perform abortions.

But, according to Planned Parenthood’s 2009 report (as illustrated above), abortions accounted for 3% of all services performed — far outweighed by vital, lifesaving cancer screenings and STD examinations. Also, as Ezra Klein notes, cutting funding for family planning will ultimately result in additional spending to offset the taxpayer cost of unwanted pregnancies “among people without the means to care for their children.”

With a heavily disruptive, potentially damaging shutdown only hours away, an ideological battle comes to a head — but at what cost?

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