I picked up on an interesting blog post over at Lindsay's blog. She's got an interesting post discussing the Missouri state house move to cut public funding for contraceptives, generally going to poorer women.

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri House voted Wednesday to ban state funding of contraceptives for low-income women and to prohibit state-funded programs from referring those women to other programs.

Critics jumped on the proposal, saying it would lead to more abortions and more unwanted children on welfare.

But the proposal’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Susan Phillips of Kansas City, said contraceptive services were an inappropriate use of tax dollars. “If doctors want to give contraception privately or personally, they can,” Phillips said. “But we don’t need to pay for contraception with taxpayer funds.”

The change was the most controversial amendment adopted during the second day of debate on next year’s state budget. The Republican majority also turned back several efforts to boost funding for health-care programs by trimming farm and agribusiness subsidies.

Phillips’ amendment did not save the state money. Instead, it imposed restrictions on how state agencies could spend $9.23 million earmarked for public-health programs, mainly for people who are poor but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

I know Cynicus argument is probably that this is another step toward pregnancy being a punishment for sex. That's a possibility. It's also some of the religious wackos going yet another step too far. What this eventually comes down to though is class warfare. Once again, the poorer masses, growing by the day, will be forced to do without yet another option for them to help improve their lives. Sure life is important so why don't we try to improve the quality of those already here.

Technorati Tags: MajikThise, birth control Missouri, Cynicus, Stithmeister

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