Guardian UK: Why fiscal conservatives care about Planned Parenthood

[marmar]

Why fiscal conservatives care about Planned Parenthood
The shutdown was never just about budget cuts: the Republican base bears a grudge about who 'deserves' government spending

Amanda Marcotte
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 April 2011



Women demonstrate in Washington, DC on 7 April 2011, as the funding of Planned Parenthood became a central issue in the budget dispute threatening a government shutdown. Photograph: AFP/Jewel Samad


The shock is palpable across the Beltway media upon hearing Harry Reid confirm that, yes, it's the funding of Planned Parenthood that is the main sticking point in the budget negotiations that threaten a shutdown of the federal government. Shocking because what's at stake – federal subsidies for contraception, cancer screening and STD testing – are largely uncontroversial. Shocking because while the rabid sex-hating, abortion-demented, abstinence-only crowd has a lot of power over Republicans, it was assumed they didn't own them wholesale – especially since the majority of Republicans support contraception use. Shocking because the common wisdom in DC was that the new Tea Party-controlled Republicans were about "fiscal conservatism", and the Republican demands for the defunding of Planned Parenthood are pure, old-school culture warring.

Not to gloat, but I did predict back in February that this would be the issue that brought everything to a head. The reason the conventional wisdom is wrong on this comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of the term "fiscal conservatism". The belief is that fiscal conservatives are merely debt-averse and want to cut spending, while the fact that these so-called fiscal conservatives routinely elect Republicans who drive up the deficit is ignored. But I would argue that fiscal conservatism has nothing to do with the deficit, and is, instead, about who conservatives believe is and isn't deserving of government largesse.

It is and always has been about excluding from the social contract poorer people, unmarried women, gays, liberals, pointy-headed intellectuals and, especially, people of colour, and keeping all government spending aimed at white, conservative Christians – the richer, the better.

Planned Parenthood has become a symbol of the kind of government spending that fiscal conservatives reject. The clientele of Planned Parenthood is the intersection of many groups that are considered unworthy by fiscal conservatives: lower-income, female, assumed to be unmarried and/or queer. Conservatives have argued, roughly forever, that such women should be cut off from any federal spending, with the hope that deprivation will force them to marry for sustenance. If women can avoid childbirth, they're less needy, and in the conservative imagination, that much more likely to avoid getting married for support. The fact that Planned Parenthood touches on the anti-sex faction of the Republican party is an added bonus, ensuring that they'll have rabid support from anti-choicers. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/08/abortion-us-federal-government-shutdown

[northoftheborder]

1. Interesting analysis from across the pond

[Blaukraut]

2. k&r n/t