Friday, July 31, 2015

Willis Hart Joins Anti-Choice Radicals Lying About Planned Parenthood

The Libertarian blogger Willis Hart, while not being opposed to a woman's right to choose per se, has, in the past, argued positions that align with the Right's War On Women. Misogynist posts denying the fact that we live in a White male dominated patriarchal society, in addition to posts that would make it harder for women to obtain birth control as well as harder to obtain the health care they need.

At least for lower middle class and working class women. As a Libertarian of course Willis does not give a shit about them. Middle and upper middle class (and rich) women can obviously afford to pay for whatever medical services they need.

In regards to these recent attacks on Planned Parenthood with James O'Keefe style deceptively edited videos, the Hartster has shamefully come out on the side of the liars.

Willis Hart: Note to Planned Parenthood... I need about a dozen spleens and eight small intestines. Can you hook me up here? Volume discount maybe? (7/29/2015 AT 4:14pm).

Does Willis Hart work in the medical research field? No, I think not. He's simply denigrating PP and (in the process) dismissing the benefit to society this kind of research brings. For no stated reason - which is why I assume his idiotic commentary is simply his way of jumping on the "lie about PP by playing up the factually incorrect narrative that PP is doing something wrong" bandwagon. For which I say - shame on you Hart.

Did PP do something wrong? Did they break any laws? Willis does not address this question. He simply implies they are, by going along with this LIE. Which it is. Factcheck.org, in an article titled "Unspinning the Planned Parenthood Video", refutes the lie that that "selling body parts" is a profit center for PP.

FactCheck.org: Jim Vaught, president of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories and formerly the deputy director of the National Cancer Institute's Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research, told us in an email that "$30 to $100 per sample is a reasonable charge for clinical operations to recover their costs for providing tissue". In fact, he said, the costs to a clinic are often much higher, but most operations that provide this kind of tissue have "no intention of fully recovering [their] costs, much less making a profit". (article from 7/21/2015).

So, ZERO profit. In fact they're losing money. PP is a non-profit organization. Fact is, the reason they do this (in addition to the research being beneficial to society), is to recoup some of their costs. As the person who was videoed without her knowledge, Deborah Nucatola (the senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood) notes... "really their bottom line is, they want to break even. Every penny they save is just pennies they give to another patient. To provide a service the patient wouldn't get".

Yet Willis (a Libertarian who isn't even anti-choice per se) participates in this aspect of the War On Women with commentaries perpetrating lies (and the sicko frames his lie-assist as a frigging joke). Why? It's because he simply does not give a shit about poor women. And because he HATES Progressives. I mean, check out his blog if you don't believe me.

And this dumbass actually used to consider himself (or present himself, at least) as a "liberal". YES, you read that right! Eight years ago on the Media Matters site, Willis, (posting under the ID wvhart6757) wrote "I'm a liberal and that offends ME!" (he was referring to Keith Olbermann).

BTW, this is the same Willis Hart who, in regards to political 180s, sez "never been a big fan of them and tend to view those who engage in such actions suspiciously". Now he's a fiscally conservative Libertarian. Does Willis view himself with suspicion?

Although here (on the PP deceptively edited video issue) he sides with the SoCons (Social Conservatives). Similar to how he sides with the pro-discrimination side when it comes to businesses OPEN TO THE PUBLIC discriminating against patrons who are gay. In one commentary (for example) titled On "Bake Me a Cake with a Statue of Two Little Dudes on it or You're Going to Jail", Willis says YES, bigot business owner SHOULD be able to discriminate. Not because he approves (OF COURSE he does not), but because he's against government force.

Whatever. The end result is the same. Gay people get discriminated against (with the blessing of Willis). And with this PP case, Willis gives his blessing to the War On Women. This aspect of the war being making it next to impossible for a woman to not be able to access LEGAL medical care if they choose (or need) to access it.

Which is what the effect this War is having on women. Although abortion services represents a very small portion of PP does (3 percent). MOST of what they do involves offering other NEEDED medical services to lower income women (and men). And, given the fact that the radical anti-choicers goal (with these deceptively edited videos) is to defund PP, the Willis hypocrite (this is the a-hole who has the balls to scold me re Libertarians being "mostly pro-choice on abortion") is contributing to the effort to take away that choice.

And, yes, Willis did come out explicitly in favor of defunding PP.

Willis Hart: Yes, continue to provide poor people with birth control but do it in a different way and let PP get their cash the old fashioned way; by earning it and through private donations. (7/29/2015 AT 10:15pm).

PP is non-profit and provides needed medical services to lower-income women (as well as men), you MORON! Yet, with his post implying PP makes a profit from selling fetal tissue for medical research (and denigrating them for this "fact"), Willis sez they need to go from nonprofit to making enough profit to replace their federal funding (40 percent of their budget). Or get the money from "private donations" (which they already accept).

"The old fashioned way" he sez... as if PP is a business, as opposed to a charitable nonprofit. Although by "old fashioned" I think the misogynist is really referring to the old fashioned idea that women are inferior to men.

OST #62

2 comments:

  1. Note that Willis says "continue to provide poor people with birth control"... but the topic is abortion services. Does this mean that Willis thinks birth control for poor people OK, but do away with abortion services? Even though he made a point of saying he was pro-choice? Pro-choice only if the person making the choice can pay, is that it?

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  2. I did not read your entire post. Why? Because prior my research leads me to believe in large part this is a dishonest full frontal attack on PP by the religious right and its republican supporters.

    Will is wrong on this one and has fallen into accepting the hyperbole and BS being spread.

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