My fellow Americans:
As a citizen of this great country, a self-respecting woman, and a person who passed fourth-grade math class, I am embarrassed. I am embarrassed on behalf of the citizens of Utah, pro-life activists, and the Republican party, although I belong to none of these groups. I am embarrassed because in an era when the Internet is a tool that we can use to literally put our brainpower together, making us more informed – and far more critical of any information that we receive – than members of any era before ours, a politician felt that all of his constituents were so asinine as to be incapable of interpreting a simple graphic. I also suspect that the party in question may have been incapable of doing so himself.
On Tuesday, September 29, Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah took the stage at a House hearing regarding the fate of Planned Parenthood. In his address, Chaffetz remarked that cancer should be receiving more government funding than any other public health issue, although he is “as fiscally conservative as he could possibly be.” He cited his and his wife’s personal experiences with victims of cancer. The outrage did not come about until Chaffetz displayed the following graphic, claiming that it came directly from Planned Parenthood’s annual report:
The graph’s criticism came first from Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards. According to MSNBC, Richards and the team of lawyers from Planned Parenthood have confirmed that not only did the graphic not come from the organization, but it is the product of Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group. In fact, I found the graph (incorrect citation and all) on AUL’s website.
My primary issue is not with the fact that Chaffetz lied; politicians lie all the time, and we have come to expect such from the leaders of our nation. Rather, I take issue with the fact that any self-respecting, educated American can look at this graph and take from it the point that Chaffetz tried — and failed — desperately to make.
Let’s break down the simple parts of a line graph: Title (check), X-axis (check), data points (check), Y-axis (.......) That’s right. Look more closely at the graph, and you will see that it lacks a Y-axis. I’m sure that any number of students at your local elementary school would have been able to help Americans United for Life out if they had asked (which illustrates the fact that our country should take math education more seriously, but that is a conversation for a different day.) The lack of this key feature allowed the group to plot the data points anywhere that they chose. While they chose to plot the data point for cancer screenings and preventative measures far below that for the number of abortions, the numbers on the graph tell a different story. While the number of abortions did rise slightly, we see that in 2013, the number of cancer screenings and prevention services that the organization provided still far surpassed the number of abortions that they performed. The lover of human nature in me would love to believe that Chaffetz was simply misinformed, but I somehow fail to believe that the entire Republican party was sick on the day that they learned about line graphs in elementary school.
Planned Parenthood is an organization that promotes education, screenings, pregnancy, and cancer prevention services, and yes, abortions, to hundreds of thousands of Americans in need annually. The fact that our nation's leaders are even considering defunding this organization speaks volumes to the fact that we have elected representatives who care more about political statements than facts and more about reelection that the good of humanity. To anyone who chooses to swallow the information that Representative Chaffetz and his pro-life, anti-women comrades are trying to feed you, I caution you to tread lightly and examine facts for yourself. As for you, Mr.Chaffetz, I would not hold your breath for re-election.
