Cincinnati Wing-Nut Steve Chabot's Constituents Jeer His Anti-Choice Fanaticism

On Monday an Iraq War vet and progressive Ohio state legislator, Rep. Connie Pillich, did a guest post for us here about her battle against John Kasich's fascist anti-union agenda. At the time I found a floor speech she gave in Columbus that I thought showed what she's made of and asked for readers to consider chipping in a contribution for her campaign. I reposted it above. Why again? And so fast?

Her opponent is a pathetic John Boehner clone named Steve Chabot, who Cincinnati voters fired in 2008 and who managed to slip back into office in the Great Shellacking of 2010, mostly because of dissatisfaction with the Democrats' tepid agenda for what they promised would be Change. In 2008, 155,089 voters (52%) elected moderate Democrat Steve Driehaus over the incumbent Chabot, who they gave 140,469 votes (48%). Two years later far fewer voters came out for the rematch. But Chabot only lost 36,699 votes, while Driehaus had a catastrophic 62,417 voter falloff (allowing Chabot to regain the seat with 51%, even edging Driehaus in Hamilton County, which is a relatively Democratic stronghold.

Next year, voters won't have to chose between a conservative Democrat and a more conservative Republican. Connie comes from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt wing of the Democratic Party. She's all about the legitimate aspirations of ordinary working families. And Chabot is... still as extreme and far from the mainstream as ever. Monday be was abusive towards constituents who wanted to talk with him about unacceptably high unemployment in the region and was booed and jeered at his own Cincinnati town hall meeting-- and it centered on his virulent opposition to federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

After a citizen asked the congress-man why he stood “against funding Planned Parenthood when public funds are not used for abortion,” Chabot argued that the money was fungible so he opposed funding because “they are the largest abortion provider in the United States.” This response brought loud jeers and shouts of “no!” from the audience. When Chabot later accused Planned Parenthood of using federal funds for abortion, one constituent asked, “Do you have any proof of that happening?” Chabot declined to respond.

...By Chabot’s logic, Congress ought to strip federal funding for any religious organizations that receive federal funds to finance their charitable and social work because “money is fungible.” Yet it’s difficult to imagine Republicans will use the same standard to target groups like the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops any time soon.

Still, the questioner makes an important point that ought not be missed in the discussion: Planned Parent is vitally important to women’s health care, especially poor women. Despite Sen. Jon Kyl’s (R-AZ) assertion that abortion is “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does,” in fact, it accounts for just 3 percent of their services. The other 97 percent includes such procedures as breast cancer exams, STI testing, and cervical cancer screening.

Yet if Chabot and Republicans in Congress had their way, Planned Parenthood would lose $330 million in federal funding that would otherwise be used to provide critical medical services to women across the country.

So... if you'd like to see a strong progressive woman working for working families in that seat instead of a crackpot like Chabot, you can help Connie win the election here.