I readily admit that I am old enough to remember the day in 1967 when Ronald Reagan signed a bill as governor of California supporting public funding of abortion for women in poverty.
While in the White House, Reagan assumed the required pro-life positions in order to keep and expand his base on the Christian Right. However, he never had a meeting in the White House with any of the pro-life organizations. They would have to stand outside at the foot of the Washington Monument, often in the rain, while Reagan spoke to them by telephone over a public address system. He was just a couple of blocks away in the Oval Office, but he understood the distance required between church and state.
The alleged Reagan Republican disciples who currently make up the Orange County Board of Supervisors decided a couple of weeks ago to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood; not for abortions, but for sex education programs in both public and private schools. Forty years later and the supes still haven’t gotten the message from their leader.
They cut off the organization’s annual funding of $290,000 for sex education, contraception and pre and post natal care for teenagers and mostly poor women, even though not a cent of the money goes for abortion. (Abortions are only 10% of the non-profit’s funding.)
The supervisors showed a gutless commitment at first by alluding to Planned Parenthood only as “that particular sub-contractor,” but then they rallied their courage by getting the red meat onto the council floor. After four of the five supervisors testified that Planned Parenthood was immoral under all circumstances and needed to be stopped, Chairwoman Patricia Bates buttoned the proceedings by informing the audience that she is a life-long Catholic and is “solid platinum pro-life.” She then summarily approved a measure to proceed with cutting Planned Parenthood’s funding. Nothing like a fair hearing.
There were over 2,200 unplanned pregnancies in Orange County last year and 56,000 cases of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), most of them by teens, many by the poor and uneducated, and all of them preventable.
Orange County’s enthusiastic welcome to President Obama last week by people across the entire political spectrum looked like an indication of the county’s politics finally growing into maturity. But, it could be that pregnant teenagers may well be growing up a lot faster than the members of the Board of Supervisors.