Breaking: Family Planning Revision Removed from Stimulus Bill

Well, this is great.

House Democrats have removed a provision from their stimulus bill that would exempt states from the need to get waivers for covering family planning under Medicaid. The family-planning aid has been the subject of repeated Republican attacks over the past few days, and health care advocates were dismayed by the Democrats’ decision to give in on its removal.

The revision the Dems have caved on would have merely allowed states to continue doing what they already do. As I mentioned this morning and Ann mentioned in her column at Tapped,

Not only will this expand health care services and take some burden off states, it will eliminate the need for states to go to the federal government and obtain a waiver.

Apparently, caving on provisions that are commonsense and make the government more efficient is how we will win the support of the right, especially when it compromises reproductive services and health care access to poor women and women of color.
I agree with what Elana Schor says at TPM,

I’m certainly receptive to the argument, relayed by Matt Yglesias and others, that the family-planning provision wasn’t genuinely stimulative, making its removal from the bill a minor decision. And I’m not accusing the Obama team of getting rolled by the Republicans on flaps like this one.
But other aid provisions in the recovery bill, not directly targeted to women’s reproductive freedom, do not create jobs or boost GDP — yet are meeting with less agitation from Republicans and remaining intact.

So why was this provision rallied against so hard?

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