The move could have health impacts for Ohioans.
A bill Ohio’s House of Representatives passed Tuesday, the second bill of its kind passed in Ohio, would defund organizations, including Planned Parenthood, that perform or promote elective abortions.
According to The Columbus Dispatch and Cleveland.com, the state-administered grants given to Planned Parenthood, which amounted to roughly $1.3 million dollars last year, would be used to fund “200 federally qualified health centers, which do not perform abortions.” The vote passed 62-30. A Republican and a Democrat co-sponsored the measure.
However, the videos that notoriously brought this subject into the political agenda this summer have been previously proven to be manipulated by an anti-abortion group.
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Furthermore, along with maintaining its stance of no legal wrongdoing, Planned Parenthood claims the state-administered grant money is not used for abortion services but rather for STI tests, breast and cervical cancer screenings, HIV tests and other social programs.
The defunding of those individual services might lead to a rise in health problems for the women who depend on them. And once again, personal ideology might have superseded making sure our neighbors have the opportunity to meet their own health needs.
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On a lighter, more caffeinated note, a study linked drinking coffee to “a reduced risk of death from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neurological diseases and suicide.”
According to The New York Times “Well” blog, the study followed 200,000 doctors and nurses over a period of 30 years and found lower risk levels in coffee drinkers over to their java-less counterparts. Interestingly enough, whether the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated made no difference in its health benefits.
So, with finals on the horizon, I’d hope you would use all those Flex Points wisely, which basically means on an IV-drip-like consumption of coffee. Some even recommend three to five cups a day.
@LukeFurmanOU
lf491413@ohio.edu
