MORE ON PLANNED PARENTHOOD, CAMPBELL BROWN, AND BOB DOLD

I considered writing a full rebuttal to Campbell Brown's New York Times op-ed entitled "Planned Parenthood's Self-Destructive Behavior," but Kathleen Geier at Washington Monthly has made the points worth making -- Geier notes that Brown is married to a Mitt Romney adviser, Dan Senor, and is thus acting as a campaign surrogate here, a fact that goes unmentioned; Geier also notes that Campbell's shining example of a Republican lawmaker who supposedly deserves Planned Parenthood's backing, Robert Dold of Ilinois, is actually not much of a supporter of reproductive rights all:

... that label is completely misleading. In 2010, Dold was back by the anti-choice Right to Life PAC; among other things, Dold

opposes government assistance for women who cannot afford abortions, he supports the ban on late-term abortions, he supports parental involvement laws, and he supports the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (which requires that a script be read to women before an abortion). Dold also supported the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which would have resulted in women losing health benefits related to abortions that they have today.

In fact, Dold is so anti-choice that in 2010 he actually won the endorsement of Phyllis Schlafly's far-right Eagle Forum. At Dold's request, however, they rescinded the endorsement.

In fact, Dold's most recent rating from the National Right to Life Committee was higher than his ratings from NARAL and Planned Parenthood.





Want more details? There's

his "yes" vote for the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011 that would have reinstated the Washington, D.C. abortion ban, eliminated the Title X program and defunded Planned Parenthood, among other stipulations.

The bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the measure was not enacted.

The Title X program provides federal money to clinics and other service providers that offer comprehensive family-planning access to low-income families....

By law, the money is not to be used for abortions. Instead, money can be used for contraception, STD and HIV testing and breast and cervical cancer screenings, among other things.

And:

Dold's "yes" vote for H.R. 358, or the "Protect Life Act," which passed in the House in October of 2011.

The act, which opponents called the "Let Women Die" bill, would have allowed federally-funded hospitals to refuse to perform abortions if they do not agree with the procedure -- even if a woman could die without the procedure.

This is Brown's great reproductive-rights hero? A guy who's looking at a tough reelection fight and cynically moving to the left for political gain? Why on earth should Planned Parenthood support such a candidate, who'll get no backup in his party for this opportunistic change of heart on reproductive rights, and whose party, if it keeps its House majority and gains the White House and/or a Senate majority, will continue its relentless assault on Planned Parenthood's top priorities?

Take your concern trollery somewhere else, Ms. Brown.

This was a ridiculous op-ed.