Things get uglier in Kansas, but clinics and pro-choice organizations are fighting back. Lila Rose is, surprise surprise, not being honest. Phoebe Potts will discuss her new graphic novel about infertility.

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Bonobos

One Kansas clinic has stayed open

Federal judge stays law

Chris Matthews kicks butt

Lila Rose is lying, again

Are there 800 other gynecologists who take Medicaid patients, as Rose claims? No.

Sally Kohn fighting the good fight

Getting that Nazi history wrong again

On this episode of Reality Cast, I’ll be looking even more at what’s the matter with Kansas, and what might be going right. Also, shocking news: Lila Rose is making stuff up again. And Phoebe Potts will be on to talk about her new book about infertility. 

Andy Cobb responded to the legalizing of gay marriage in New York by pleading with conservatives to hang up the “gay marriage is unnatural” argument, just on the grounds of silliness.

• bonobos *

The whole thing was accompanied by a video proving how much bonobos spend pretty much every waking hour having sex with each other, sometimes even in three ways and definitely in homosexual pairings.  No, I’m serious.  They really do that.

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Last week, with Kate Sheppard’s help, I covered the extensive attacks on abortion clinics in Kansas.  Regulations concocted strictly to shut down the clinics seemed like they were going to take out all three remaining clinics, and in fact, all three had their licenses revoked, but the state has since relented in the case of one clinic. 

• Kansas 1 *

Here’s my theory, though it’s mainly a theory so feel free to disregard it.  Even though it’s clear and has been stated by some legislators that these regulations are only about making abortion illegal, the official excuse for the regulations is that they’re there to protect women’s health.  And that they’re therefore not a violation of Roe v. Wade.  But shutting down all three clinics, no matter how much in compliance they are, made it too obvious that this has nothing to do with women’s health.  As soon as the clinics sued, Gov. Sam Brownback and company realized their disingenuous claims that this is about protecting women instead of banning abortion wouldn’t fly.  So they allowed one clinic to have a license to establish plausible deniability.  If they win the court case, this last clinic will be shut down, however, because the court has signed off on the new powers they’ve given themselves.

So while I’m glad that at least one clinic in Kansas can continue to serve abortion patients, I must caution against being too happy about it.  They’re only operating, I suspect, because it’s strategic for anti-choicers to allow it.  But it won’t last if the antis win their case.  That said, there is still good news. 

• Kansas 2 *

That a federal judge stays a law doesn’t mean that it will be overturned. However, it does mean that’s a bit more likely to be the case, and at least means that this law is considered drastic enough that it had to be stayed while it gets hashed out.  Also, women in Kansas won’t suffer the dramatic loss in services that they would have otherwise.  Or will they?  The health department in Kansas is claiming they can create another set of permanent restrictions that are identical that won’t be subject to this stay.  We’ll see. 

Chris Matthews did some great coverage of this, including interviewing Nancy Northup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.  The Center is basically managing the clinic lawsuits against Kansas.

• Kansas 3 *

He also interviewed journalist Laura Bassett about why the supporters of these laws are, well, liars.  I really liked this part because Matthews didn’t pull his punches when it came to characterizing the disingenuous claims that these laws are there to somehow protect women.  Yeah, in the same way poll taxes were there to protect black citizens from having to vote.

• Kansas 4 *

I highly recommend the whole segment.  He really drills down into how much this law is being justified in bad faith, and how unconstitutional all this is. I’ve made fun of Chris Matthews before for some of his silly sexist moments, but he really did a thorough job in covering this issue.

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insert interview

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Lila Rose is at it again with videos that purport to be exposes of Planned Parenthood, but instead are just lies and distortions.  This time the issue is the claim that cutting Medicaid off to Planned Parenthood patients will keep those patients from getting care from their usual provider of gynecological services.  This claim is what we in the real world call “common sense”.  If you go to a certain clinic for care and that clinic shuts down, you can no longer go there for care.  But Rose wants to claim that this is a lie because some patients are on Medicaid and they can go somewhere else in theory.   The latest video shows the CEO of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, saying this:

• planned 1 *

So let’s restate this, for utmost clarity. Richards said that she’s getting letters from women who go to Planned Parenthood and are concerned that they can no longer go to Planned Parenthood because this ban on Medicaid funding means Medicaid won’t pay for it.  This is the recording of herself that Rose made that supposedly debunks this claim.

• planned 2 *

So the claim is that Richards was lying when she said Medicaid patients couldn’t go to Planned Parenthood anymore.  Rose called up and found that Planned Parenthood wouldn’t take Medicaid patients anymore.  In other words, she proved that Richards was telling the naked, honest truth.  The implication here is that the care could easily be replaced with care from somewhere else.  But no where in her supposed expose does Rose actually prove this.  Her assumption in the phone she made is that your average patient on Medicaid who goes to Planned Parenthood has access to a private physician who takes Medicaid patients and provides the same services.  She offers no proof that this is true, and in fact, it’s clear that even the Planned Parenthood she calls is not capable of giving a referral.  That’s because there often aren’t any alternatives.  The video also claims that only 1% of Medicaid patients in Indiana go to Planned Parenthood.  Even if this is true, and nothing from Lila Rose should be assumed true until it’s proven, so what?  A lot of that has to do with the fact that many Medicaid patients are old people, men, and children.  Especially children.  The implication that the 1% who use the services don’t need them because they’re small in number is plain false.  Nearly a million people in Indiana use Medicaid, which means that supposedly small number of women is actually 10,000. That’s a lot of women in a small state.

All that this video proves is that, in desperation, Planned Parenthood is telling Medicaid patients to go to their primary care physicians.  This is, in and of itself, not that helpful.  Rose doesn’t go to a gynecologist, I’m guessing, because if she did, she would know that your gynecologist is an entirely different doctor, and in fact, many of these primary care physicians would, if you came in looking for these services, refer you to Planned Parenthood. But she never actually attempts to do that, because it doesn’t serve her dishonest, misogynist agenda.

The video also claims that there are 800 alternative Medicaid providers in Indiana for women to go to.  Rose is clearly implying there are 800 gynecologists in the state that take Medicaid patients, because gynecological services are exactly what needs to be replaced.  But if you actually look at that number, you’ll find out, surprise surprise, it’s a lie. Here’s Rachel Maddow explaining who those 800 providers actually are.

• planned 3 *

Sally Kohn took one for the team and went up against a smug, hateful Lila Rose on Fox News and reiterated the point that having your doctor taken from you isn’t all roses and perfume, like Rose claims it is.

• planned 4 *

The argument that there are alternatives doesn’t even make any sense if you think about it.  If there are alternatives to Planned Parenthood on every corner, how does Planned Parenthood get patients at all?  Wouldn’t women on Medicaid do what women with private insurance usually do, which is to go to their private gynecologists?  Even without the facts, the underlying assumptions Rose promotes make no sense.  In reality, as has been demonstrated on this show over and over, Planned Parenthood is a reliable source of gynecological care.  And it’s one that primary care physicians refer to, in part because they aren’t gynecologists and in part because they don’t have time or resources to handle the 10,000 new patients that will be foisted on them.

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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, Nazis! Edition.  Think Progress put together a collection of quotes from anti-choice legislators supporting the heartbeat ban in Ohio, just so you could get an earful of how stupid they sound.  Robert Mecklenborg went for the Nazi argument.

• Nazis *

Actually, the Nazis strengthened laws against abortion, making the punishments more severe.  They opposed abortion for the same reasons as Mecklenborg, which is because they wanted more soldiers and workers for the Fatherland.