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Monday, December 31, 2012

Support Family Planning, letter by Mari Dominguez - Bridgercare

Reproduced here for fair use and discussion purposes. My comments interspersed in bold.
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Bridgercare, like many other nonprofits at this time of year, is buoyed by the generous support and expressions of gratitude we receive from patients and community members alike. Support for our sliding fee reproductive health services is vital, but it is these heartfelt expressions of appreciation that bolster our board and staff.

We also receive feedback that reminds us that there is still significant misunderstanding about the goals of family planning in our society. This ignorance is a major contributing factor to our country’s stubbornly high rate (50 percent) of unintended pregnancy (Notice how the opposition is pejoratively characterized as ignorant.).

Family Planning healthcare and education has the goal of giving couples the best chance to plan for and space children according to parents’ desires and resources. Benefits include better maternal health outcomes, improved infant and child survival and health, and greater economic security for families and resulting academic achievement for children.

Bridgercare and Title X, our country’s family planning program, which was co-sponsored by George H.W. Bush in 1970 (Why is Bush's participation relevant? As is typical for the Left, the reviled characters on the Right conveniently become noble and smart whenever expediency requires it),

has never funded, nor included in its’ (sic) services, provision of abortion in its 41-year history (What is the claim here? "Provision of abortion" means what, exactly? From their website: "We refer out for those services as we don’t offer them ourselves." This sounds to me like they indeed make some sort of provision for abortion services. Isn't a referral a provision? 

And oh how the Left has chaffed, whined and complained about the prohibition of title X funds for abortion! But what they couldn't accomplish with Title X they have managed to achieve with Obamacare. Despite loud assurances to voters [including mocking those who claimed otherwise], and especially, a political deal reached with former democratic congressman Bart Stupak which was reneged on later, abortion is finally going to receive the government funding abortionists crave. That deal was cut with Stupak in exchange for his vote in favor of Obamacare [the swing vote] in March of 2010. Stupak was voted out the following November, replaced by TEA partier Dan Benishek. 

So now we have government funding of elective abortion, previously illegal. The question is, will Bridgercare get on that gravy train when it becomes available? Seems very likely, considering that 16% of Bridgercare's budget comes from government. The sole reason more funding doesn't come from taxpayers is because it wasn't permitted before. 

If you search the Bozeman Chronicle for letters to the editor from Bridgercare director Mari Dominguez, you will see that almost every one of them is a plea to protect government funding. That's what it's all about for these folks is keeping the gravy train rolling.) 



Not only does Bridgercare not offer abortions, we do not offer adoption care or prenatal care (Well of course not. "Family planning" is no longer "family planning" once birth has occurred. The it becomes "childcare." Bridgercare does, however, offer "emergency contraception birth control pills." These pills prevent the fertilized egg from implanting on the placenta, which means, of course, that a genetically human life dies. While not technically an abortion in the surgical sense, a life is nevertheless ended.).

This allows us to provide truly unbiased, patient-directed pregnancy options counseling and referrals to outside agencies for follow-up care (Unbiased? We already noted the derision directed at their ignorant detractors. And for the record, we note that their website advertises a "Latex and Lace" fashion show. I'm sure that event will be unbiased.)

Access to affordable contraceptive options, information, and related healthcare reduces abortions by reducing unintended pregnancy. Countries with the highest rates of abortion, across the board, also have very limited or no access to reproductive healthcare services and birth control methods (This is known as a correlation, and as we all know, correlation is not causation. What is not mentioned is the multitude of other factors that come to bear. For example, the overall quality of healthcare, the education level, the poverty rate, societal and cultural customs, fertility rates, and the legality of abortion. We can see here that Russia, for example, by far has the highest abortion rate. We can speculate as to cause, but there is no rational basis for claiming "...limited or no access to reproductive healthcare services..."

But how about the U.S. itself? This map shows that the more left-leaning states generally have the highest incidence of abortion! What might we conclude about that?



A society that plans for children understands the tremendous responsibility to provide the best possible start for future generations. This is what Family Planning is all about. Surely the many positive benefits that follow for individuals, families and our community are something we can all support.

Mari Dominguez

Bridgercare executive director

1 comment:

  1. Interesting how Ms. Dominguez talks about community support, much of which takes the form of cash donations, purportedly to fund their program. What she fails to mention is that a goodly portion of those donations comprise her $87k salary. $87,000! That's 75% higher than the average professional wage in Bozeman. If Bridgercare can afford to pay her that much, can't they afford to pay their own way, instead of begging from people of lesser means?

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