House Republicans used the sit-in to vote on a Zika bill that targeted Planned Parenthood
ICYMI--in the hussle of the Democratic sit-in--
House Republicans used the sit-in to vote on a Zika bill that targeted Planned Parenthood
http://www.vox.com/2016/6/23/12014360/zika-sit-in-democrats-gop-house
Updated by Emily Crockett on June 23, 2016, 4:34 p.m. ET @emilycrockett emily@vox.com
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
While House Democrats were holding an all-night sit-in to demand a vote on gun control, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan tried his best to act like it wasn’t happening.
At about 1 am on Thursday, while drowned out by cries of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" from Democrats and partially blocked from C-SPAN’s cameras by protest signs, Ryan held some procedural votes on when the House would reconvene to vote on emergency funding to address the Zika virus. The votes were held at 2:30 am, and the Zika bill passed.
It was a surreal moment, the likes of which Washington insiders say they’ve never seen. But the actual content of that Zika bill, which passed the House, really was business as usual for congressional Republicans: It conditioned government funding for women’s health on excluding Planned Parenthood.
Zika causes severe birth defects, and it can be sexually transmitted. Helping women prevent pregnancy is an important part of Zika prevention efforts. Yet part of the Republicans’ bill effectively excludes Planned Parenthood from distributing birth control under a $95 million grant program.
Republicans have threatened government shutdowns over Planned Parenthood before, and they consistently offer spending bills that gut or eliminate funds for low-income family planning clinics through the Title X program. Yet they’ve also tried to argue that women could just go to Title X clinics or other providers if Planned Parenthood were to be defunded. That’s nonsense, as Vox’s Sarah Kliff has explained; Planned Parenthood is too integral to the health care system, and other clinics just wouldn’t have the capacity to take over for it...................................
And from March 16:
@HillaryClinton is urging the House GOP to take Zika seriously and meet the president's request:
The time to take action against Zika is now
https://medium.com/hillary-for-america/the-time-to-take-action-against-zika-is-now-aa40f325a3f7#.2pqk0jyoc
The Zika virus, which has already spread through South and Central America and the Caribbean, has now infected a number of Americans. It’s a serious disease that risks the long-term health of children. We’ve got to step up as a country and deal with this right now.
To date, there have been nearly 200 confirmed Zika infections in the continental United States. That includes 49 in Florida, 19 in Texas and 25 in New York, plus cases in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Hawaii and Indiana. So far, every one of those infections has been related to travel — people went to Central and South America, were bitten by infected mosquitos there, and came home with the virus. But we’re likely to see people become infected without leaving the United States — both because there is evidence that Zika can be sexually transmitted, and because mosquitos in this country will likely start spreading Zika as the weather gets warmer. This is already happening in Puerto Rico (whose residents, remember, are American citizens) where there are close to 160 cases today, and where experts predict that 1 in 5 people could become infected with Zika by summer. For an island without many public health resources, this is a serious problem.
Why does Zika matter? In great part because it’s been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect where babies are born with too-small heads, often leading to severe developmental delays. The heartbreak that microcephaly can cause families is devastating. And babies with microcephaly require a great deal of long-term medical care. That’s something that many families and communities just don’t have the resources to provide.
That’s why we’ve got to stop Zika before it spreads any further.
= new reply since forum marked as read
They don't care about nothing except for $$$$.
