By: Editorial Team
In light of the somewhat-recent release of several videos by the Center for Medical Progress that purportedly show a Planned Parenthood (PP) official selling fetal tissue for profit, many people have begun to voice their opinions over PP and have called for the organization to cease its receiving of tax dollars for operation.
Among these voices are many congressional legislators that have even threatened to shut down the government if PP is not defunded. Funding for the federal government was set to run out on Wednesday, but a bill has been passed that will keep the government funded through Dec. 11, according to an article on the National Public Radio’s website.
In a poll released Monday by Quinnipiac University, 23 percent of Americans support shutting down the government because of PP funding, with 69 percent opposed.
Thankfully, the majority of voters got their wish, because congress has some serious work to do.
While the issue of abortion is one that is an important social issue that should be discussed, there are three things to remember. First and foremost, abortions make up a small percentage of the essential services that PP offers, which also include STD testing and treatment, contraception, and cancer screening and prevention, to name a few.
Second, regardless of whether or not the whole country agrees with it, the right to a private decision concerning abortion for women is guaranteed under the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling in Roe vs. Wade. While defunding the government over the PP side of this issue sounds like certain politicians taking a morale stand, it is just that and nothing more. The stand is actually not accomplishing their intended goal of restricting women’s access to abortion services across the board; it is simply defunding a healthcare non-profit (refer to the point above).
Third, our congressional legislators have much more pressing economic issues to be worrying about than making defunding a women’s services organization a top priority and even the running platform of some Presidential candidates.
Our legislators have much more important issues that they need to be focusing their time and energy on.
Campaign finance laws
Under the 2010 Citizens United court ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided that the Frist Amendment prohibited the federal government from restricting political expenditures from both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
This essentially means that very wealthy people are able to donate huge amounts of money to political candidates to fund their election campaigns. Now, many candidates find themselves visiting billionaires across the country in the hopes of receiving generous donations for their campaigns. Though the SCOTUS would want you to think otherwise, money does indeed play a role in legislative decision-making.
Income inequality
Income inequality is a term that refers to how income is distributed in a society. In the United States, income is not being distributed evenly. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average hourly wage rose 76 percent between 1947 and 1972, while it rose by just 9 percent from 1972 to 2011. In addition, the Institute for Policy Studies reports that in 2009, Chief Executive Officers of large U.S. corporations averaged a rate of pay that was more than 263 times as much as the average American worker. And while worker education and productivity have increased over the years, wages have stayed relatively stagnant when adjusted for inflation.
Healthcare affordability and availability
By now most of us have probably seen the news about the Turing pharmaceutical company CEO Martin Shkreli after he raised the price of a drug that is used to treat AIDS patients from $13.50 to a whopping $750 per pill (more than 5000%). He received huge criticism over the act and has stated that the price will be lowered, but that the company “still needs to make a profit” on the drug, because the old price was practically the same as giving it away. And that is precisely the problem. Healthcare and pharmaceutical companies aren’t in operation simply to provide essential services to those in need; they are also businesses looking to make a profit. We need to look at our healthcare system from a different approach: one that sees people as people, and not as bank accounts to be exploited.
Affordable higher education and student loan reform
Higher education has become a necessity in order to make a decent living in this day and age. In a study by the Pew Research Center published in February of 2014, college graduates ages 25 to 32 make about $17,500 more per year than people with only a high school diploma. The main concern among most college students is how they are going to pay for their education.
According to the Institute for College Access and Success, nearly 70 percent of public and nonprofit college graduates had student loan debt at an average of $28,400 per person.
But it’s not just the amount of debt that has us college students worried, it’s the repayment system that is currently being used as a for-profit system, with banks and other private organizations reaping huge profits from high interest rates on student loans, with some reaching upwards of 8 percent. While the amount of people with college degrees has nearly tripled in the last 50 years, wages have remained fairly stagnant, making the ability to repay any necessary loans much more difficult.
With all of this being said, it is important to note once again that The Journal does not wish to undermine the issue of tax dollars for abortion services, but that we wish to shed some light on much more serious and prevalent issues at hand that affect millions of people across the country on a daily basis.
