GOP Defends Bishops Over Grant For Sex Trafficking Victims 1DEZ11

republican and tea-bagger politicians continue their propaganda war against the Obama administration with this sham hearing where they claim concern for the health and welfare of sex trafficking victims while at the same time legislating cuts to vital social safety net programs that offer support for the very lives they claim to value, cuts the teachings of Jesus Christ do not support (see Matthew 25, the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount). Their platform of smaller, less intrusive government, a government with less regulation, doesn't seem to apply to women, suggesting these men doubt women have the intelligence and morals to make the right decisions concerning their own lives while arguing for less regulation for the male dominated banking-financial industry cabal, because these men have the intelligence and morals to make the right decisions for our economy.....Maybe it's just me, but their arguments concerning both issues scream hypocrisy.....
House lawmakers sparred bitterly on Thursday over the Obama administration's decision to deny a group of Catholic bishops a lucrative grant because they refused to refer sex trafficking victims to a full range of reproductive services. Republicans accused the administration of being overtly anti-Catholic and promoting abortion, while Democrats said the GOP had scheduled the hearing with the sole purpose of "smearing" President Obama.
The Department of Health and Human Services recently decided not to renew a $19 million, five-year contract with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to help sex trafficking victims because the group does not refer survivors to abortion or contraception services. The three groups who received the grant instead of the bishops -- Tapestri of Atlanta, Heartland Human Care Services of Chicago and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants of Washington -- all agreed to provide victims "the full range of reproductive services" recommended by the health department.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on Thursday to interrogate the health department over its decision on this one grant. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said the fact that the bishops were qualified in every other way to help sex trafficking victims proved that the administration was basing its decision entirely on a pro-abortion, anti-Catholic bias.
"The Obama administration's bias against Catholics is an affront to religious freedom and a threat to all people," he said at the hearing. "The Catholic organization was discriminated against solely because it fundamentally respects the innate value and dignity of an unborn child and refuses to be complicit in his or her violent death."
George Sheldon, Acting Assistant Secretary for Children and Families under HHS, told the committee that many sex trafficking victims who become pregnant following multiple traumatic rapes deserve to be at least offered the option of ending that pregnancy and procuring contraception for the future. He said that HHS clearly told all groups competing for the grant that "strong preference" would be given to those organizations that would refer victims to doctors who can provide STI treatment, family planning services and "the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care."
According to HHS, a team of reviewers looked at all the applications and determined the strengths and weaknesses of each. The USCCB initially received a higher score than the others because it had carried out its previous contract successfully and had significant experience helping sex trafficking victims. Yet it lost the contract because it failed to provide details in its application as to what reproductive health alternatives it would provide for pregnant sex trafficking victims.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, asked Sheldon how the bishops could receive a higher rating than other groups and still be denied the contract. Sheldon tried to answer the question, but Issa interrupted him angrily.
"You did not tell them that they could be just a shitpot better and still not get the award," he shouted. "That has a chilling effect."
Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) pointed out that the Obama administration had awarded Catholic groups a number of other lucrative federal contracts this year and had granted them more money over the past three years than the Bush Administration did in the three previous years. He said that this should be proof enough that Obama is not biased against Catholics, and that Republicans were only making a big deal out of this particular grant to make the president look bad.
“The title of today’s hearing frames Health and Human Services as being in conflict with the Catholic church," he said. "The underlying argument is whether a victim is going to have their health care services limited or not."
"I hope the gentleman did not mean to say that the Chair is being disingenuous or outright lying about the purpose of this meeting," Issa snapped back.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who is Catholic, tried to lay the issue of Obama's alleged religious discrimination to rest, but slipped in a dig to Issa in the process.
"I am alarmed when people use hyperbolic rhetoric, which might suggest to some, certainly not me, that actually the purpose of the hearing … is to try to smear the Obama administration with a label that, if true, would be very disturbing," he said. "As a Catholic, I would like to believe that it's not true. In fact, there's plenty of common-faith evidence that it's not."

RAPE, BIRTH CONTROL AND H.R. 3, THEY'VE GONE TO FAR 31JAN11

THE same politicians who are supporting H.R. 3 also support cutting funding for health care for expectant mothers, women and children, nutrition programs for children, Head Start, after-school programs, increasing the minimum wage and the equal pay act (both would increase income for families, improving the lives of children). Most hypocritically justify their support for H.R. 3 on their religious beliefs, and then ignore their religion's teachings about caring for the poor, fair wages, women, children, orphans, the sick, the least among us. AND THEIR VIEWS ON RAPE ARE DISGUSTING, LACKING ANY COMPASSION AT ALL FOR THE VICTIMS OF THIS CRIME. Click the header or links to tell your Representative to vote no on H.R. 3. If you can add your own statement to the letter to your Representative, he is what I added to mine
I also find it extremely offensive that these same politicians who would limit access to birth control and abortion oppose fully funding the social safety net programs and quality of life programs that would protect and provide for the lives they claim to value and vow to protect. This hypocritical political propaganda campaign is disgusting and all who participate in it should be ashamed.
Be sure to check out the story from True Majority / USAction on the smear campaign involving sex trafficking and Planned Parethood.....it is pathetic...

A NEW LOW FOR ANTI-CHOICE LEADERS IN CONGRESS New legislation would take away the health benefits women have today. It attempts to ban private health insurance for abortion even in many cases of rape and when the woman’s life is in danger. They’ve gone too far. Tell Congress to reject the anti-choice Smith bill. “This is a reckless effort to cripple an irreplaceable organization out of pure politics.” That’s what The New York Times wrote yesterday about extreme anti-choice legislation recently introduced in Congress that would strip Planned Parenthood of funds to provide preventive care — birth control and family planning — to millions of women. More people are recognizing the truth about what we’ve been saying for months: anti-choice attacks on women’s health and Planned Parenthood itself are escalating, and our opponents want nothing less than to eliminate Planned Parenthood and with it a source of care for millions of women. The new anti-choice leadership in the House presents a real danger to the future of women’s health in America. The first step to stopping them is to speak out. Tell Congress to reject the anti-choice Smith bill. Representative Smith (R-NJ) introduced a bill that attempts to ban private insurance coverage for abortion for millions of women — even for women who have such coverage today. It goes so far as to raise taxes for individuals and small businesses that purchase health insurance coverage for abortion with their own money. And it gets worse. Heartlessly, the Smith bill would even prevent many rape survivors from getting the care they need. If this bill passes, only rape survivors who become pregnant through “forcible rape” will be allowed federal financing of abortion. This means women who are drugged, unconscious, coerced — or whatever else state lawmakers decide does not constitute “forcible rape” — could be excluded from the abortion coverage they need. Read that again, because it is truly shocking. The sponsors of this bill want to ban federal funding for abortion in cases of rape they deem not “forcible.” This bill would reverse existing protections that guarantee millions of women access to abortion coverage when their life is in danger. And if that is not enough, it expands restrictions on abortion funding and makes them permanent. To protect access to abortion, we must stop this bill. I can’t express how unjust, and how cruel, this legislation truly is. Rep. Smith and his extreme anti-choice colleagues have taken their campaign against women’s health and rights to a new low, and they must be stopped. Do your part now. Tell Congress to reject this attack on women’s health. Click here to take action. It is unconscionable for anti-choice politicians who were elected on a promise to fix the economy to use their newly found power to deny women access to reproductive health care, including abortion. But that’s exactly what they are trying to do. Our opponents want to shut down local Planned Parenthood health centers and deny women access to basic preventive health care like birth control and family planning. They want to take away women’s right to make their own personal and private medical decisions. The members of the new House majority have proven that there is no limit to how far they will go in their assault on women’s health and rights. We have to stand against them. You and I and everyone who cares about women’s health, we must speak out together. Please, take action now — and then tell you friends, your family, and your co-workers to join you. Thank you so very much for standing with us and the women, men, and teens that rely on Planned Parenthood. Sincerely, Cecile Richards, President Planned Parenthood Federation of America Don't let them smear Planned Parenthood Sign our petition to defend Planned Parenthood from false attacks. The right wing smear machine that took down Shirley Sherrod, Van Jones and ACORN is at it again, and this time the target is Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of health care to low income women. The attack is as deceitful as it is dangerous to our democracy -- dangerous because some conservatives in Congress are all too willing to use this manufactured controversy as a political tool to roll back women’s rights. Please take a moment and sign this petition and let Congress know that we won’t stand by and let an organization dedicated to helping women be falsely smeared for political purposes. http://act.truemajorityaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=178 Here’s the skinny: On Tuesday an extremist, anti-choice group released an obviously edited and distortion-filled video of their “undercover” visit to a New Jersey clinic. They claim the video shows Planned Parenthood employees helping cover up an underage sex trafficking operation. Yeah, that’s right. Planned Parenthood, a leader not only in women’s health but in women’s rights, is being falsely accused of helping hide a criminal sex trafficking ring. “Sick” and “deplorable” are two words that come to mind, but “absurd” probably fits it best when you see the heavily edited video and hear the truth, which is that Planned Parenthood had already called the U.S. Attorney General’s office about visits to 12 clinics nationwide by a man purporting to be a sex trafficker. The man was asking for information on health services for his sex workers, including some that he said were minors illegally in the U.S. In reality there is no sex trafficking ring. The visits were made by radical right-wingers who wanted to get Planned Parenthood workers on videotape, so they could edit and distort their words to paint a patently false picture. Now this video is circulating through the media, enabling right-wing talking heads and Congress members to use it as a political weapon. We need to stand up and loudly defend Planned Parenthood from these attacks. Otherwise, the radical right could get its wish -- cutting off funding and weakening family planning services and reproductive health care for women. Darcy Scott Martin USAction/TrueMajority