Abortion as a political football

Or, Planned Parenthood, in particular.

That’s how WaPo’s blog ‘The Fix’ put it.

While the high-profile congressional fight over Planned Parenthood’s funding is over, the group is still engaged in a number of legal battles across the country, fights that could become an issue in the 2012 elections.

It may not be high-profile at the moment, but the effort to defund Planned Parenthood is far from over. True, the organization is embroiled in legal battles around the country wherever states pass laws like informed consent, parental notification, waiting periods or ultrasounds required before women proceed with abortion. They’ll be an issue in the election alright.

The ‘war on women’ mantra in this piece is tired and not working, because it’s not remotely applicable to the effort to protect women’s and children’s health, family health (as opposed to what’s oddly called ‘family planning’), and to direct taxpayer funds to causes other than ending human life.

The piece claims that

…Planned Parenthood — and Democrats — have succeeded in making the debate about women’s health, rather than abortion rights.

Not really, at least not in the real world outside the closed circuit of those who only talk to each other in the abortion movement and their sympathizers in the media and, as the piece makes clear, the Democrats. Though that’s not fair to pro-life Democrats, relatively small group that it is.

It’s interesting that WaPo’s blog enumerates the battles Planned Parenthood is engaged in throughout many states, and only the high-profile ones among many others. But by doing so it shows how concerted the effort is to stop the radical abortion-on-demand-at-all-cost-and-no-regulation mentality across the states.

It’s clear. Planned Parenthood is a political football. For now, the Democrats are punting. Republicans are huddling over who’s on the field and what their strategy is. And spectators are watching.