November 03, 2015 11:58 AM UTC

GarCo Commishes Determined To Troll Planned Parenthood

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent’s John Stroud reports, Republican commissioners in Garfield County are determined to be part of the not-really-existent Planned Parenthood “backlash” story, and don’t you dare tell them they can’t be:

Citing what one Garfield County commissioner called “partisan emails” from political action groups advocating for Planned Parenthood, commissioners Monday eliminated 2016 grant funding for the local clinic.

“Our human services grant recipients are not supposed to be political, and this group is very political,” Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said…

“I receive emails that I find to be very partisan, and very political, and I’m no longer comfortable with this organization,” Jankovsky said, referring to the political action group Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado.

“I understand how important Planned Parenthood has been for women’s health … but I have to take a stand on this,” he said.

As Stroud reports, the Garfield County board of commissioners voted yesterday to take away a $1,500 grant to Planned Parenthood’s Glenwood Springs Health Center. Apparently, the GOP-controlled GarCo board of commissioners has been “concern trolling” the local Planned Parenthood clinic for several years, having cut off and reinstated funding in 2012-13 after receiving redundant assurances from the organization that no, they’re not “paying for abortions” with your tax dollars.

Obviously, the biggest problem with the stated rationale for this action by Garfield County’s Republican commissioners is that Planned Parenthood is under attack by the same party they belong to. One need look no further to discover why Planned Parenthood is obliged to defend itself from one side of the political spectrum than the Republican Study Committee of Colorado’s upcoming all day kangaroo-court “hearing” scheduled at the Colorado Capitol for next week. The entire summer-long campaign against Planned Parenthood using doctored undercover videos from usual-suspect anti-abortion types has played out as a partisan political exercise. But don’t tell any of that to GarCo’s Republican commissioners:

Jankovsky also acknowledged that Planned Parenthood “does many good things, and has been very positive in what they have done here in Garfield County.” [Pols emphasis]

“Because of the politics of it, I can’t continue to support it,” he said.

To whatever extent Planned Parenthood’s self-defense comes across as “partisan,” that’s simply because the attacks on Planned Parenthood are 100% partisan Republican in nature. Of course, you and Republican Garfield County commissioner Tom Jankovsky already know that. And as long as you know that Planned Parenthood is under attack by the GOP as a partisan exercise, necessitating a defense that inevitably has some degree of partisan undertones due to the partisan nature of the attack, a defense which is then itself condemned as “partisan” by partisan Republicans with a history of attacks on Planned Parenthood…

Good Lord, this is so damned stupid. Just admit you wanted a piece of the action, boys.