Republicans, Along With The American Public, Don't Favor A Government Shutdown Over Planned Parenthood
A recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University has found that 69 percent of Americans are not in favor of the government shutting down over defunding Planned Parenthood. Released on Monday, the poll also found that most Republicans, totaling 56 percent also oppose the shutdown, while only 23 percent of Americans support closing the government in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood.
The poll showed that by a slight majority Americans overall oppose defunding Planned Parenthood altogether, with 52 percent in favor of keeping federal dollars going toward the organization and 41 percent believing the opposite. Interestingly enough, a definitive opposition to Planned Parenthood is also happening across gender lines, along with party lines. A total of 49 percent of men say they support cutting off funding, while 44 percent are in opposition; this is compared to 60 percent of women who oppose the cutoff, with 34 percent of women are in favor of it.
Overall, the poll also found that a small majority of Americans have a favorable opinion of Planned Parenthood — 44 percent approving of the organization with 39 percent against it. Women, unsurprisingly, were more in favor of Planned Parenthood at 50 percent, while men displayed a majority of unfavorable opinions at 43 percent.
But, despite public opinion, it seems more and more like the government shutdown is not going to happen. According to Politico, House Speaker John Boehner announcing his resignation for the end of October makes the shutdown even less likely. With little time left in office, Boehner will be able to pass a “clean bill,” funding the government, with the support of the Democrats, and without political repercussions.
On top of this, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently moved to take out the bill’s provision that would defund Planned Parenthood. But if this provision is kept in place, Planned Parenthood will lose 41 percent of its source of revenue, amounting to $528.4 million between 2013 and 2014.
And if Planned Parenthood were to lose the majority of its funding, this would have serious repercussions for both women and men. According to NPR, in 2013 Planned Parenthood helped 2.7 million men and women. For women, services included 500,000 breast exams, 400,000 pap tests, and 4.5 million STD tests for both sexes. Similarly, Planned Parenthood offers screenings for prostate, colon, and testicular cancer for men. This is on top of their sexual education services, which recently released a video series on the definition of consent, and what it looks like in sexual relationships.
Whether the government shutdown will happen still remains to be seen, but hopefully that will not be the case. The Quinnipiac survey concludes that along with the unpopularity of the shutdown, 39 percent of Americans are inclined to blame Americans if the shutdown does happen. But at this point, we can only wait and see.