The Great Fungibility Fallacy

Fungibility: "the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution. Examples of highly fungible commodities are crude oil, wheat, orange juice, precious metals, and currencies."

Fallacy: "usually incorrect reasoning in argumentation resulting in a misconception."

If you haven't been keeping up with the HR3 news, here's a recap: There's no such thing as federal funding for abortions. Unless, of course, you believe that PAP smears, contraception, cancer screenings and treatment, WIC appointments, STI tests/treatments, and, in some cases, in vitro fertilization, all somehow consist of procuring abortions.

Why is this relevant? Because today our House votes on the "No Taxpayer Funding For Oompaloopas Act". Oops. I mean "Abortion" - "No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act". Our trusted government officials are wasting taxpayer dollars voting to defund and restrict from using taxpayer dollars something that is already, and has been since 1976, restricted from using taxpayer dollars. So yeah. They're defunding a unicorn. It all comes down to Title X and the funding of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood provides abortions. Not every clinic provides that specific service. But they all provide very vital services for all people regarding reproductive health. And they all keep their doors open through funding of Title X.

Since 1976 and the passing of the Hyde Amendment, federally funded health services (such as Planned Parenthood) who provide abortion services were prohibited from using any of the funding to assist with the cost of an abortion, except in the cases of rape, incest, or threat to the mother's health. Even with such exceptions, getting approval for that coverage is near impossible; thus only 191 women were covered in 2008. But even though the conservatives got their way and cut off health care assistance to the poor women who probably need it most (and that's all the Hyde Amendment did, I assure you), the conservatives still aren't satisfied. They want to strip all federal funding from these clinics so they can protect their tax dollars from being used for abortions. Oh, wait. They're not? Oh. Well then I just don't want my tax dollars being used for a clinic that provides that service despite the fact that not one cent of my money will touch "the unspeakable procedure". I'm going to play this card in the name of Fungibility.

The idea goes as such: that if our money goes to Planned Parenthood, it doesn't matter that our money is kept separate from abortion provision. It only matters that our money went to Planned Parenthood, despite the fact that it would be used for such services as preventing the further need for abortion. Their thinking is that if it goes to the same clinic, then, in a round-about way, it still pays for abortion no matter how separate the funding is.

At face value, this may seem like a logical line of thinking. But when talking about federal funding so accidentally and loosely being applied to something someone doesn't like, we have to be all-inclusive. While the rest of the world knows that federal tax dollars don't fund abortion procedures, when looked at through the fungibility fallacy it turns out that all federal tax dollars apparently pay for all abortion procedures.

1. The woman who rides the bus to the clinic is using federal funding in two ways: the bus itself and the road that was paved using taxpayer dollars.

2. If she is low income and thus on welfare, the money she didn't have to spend on food was used to pay for her procedure.

3. Law Enforcement protects the clinics, clinic workers, and the patients from harm. This includes the FBI who have to clean up after such anti-choice messes as the murder of Dr. George Tiller and the Pensacola bombings of 1984.

4. Every government employee's salary is paid by taxpayers. In the event that any one of those employees, for any reason, sought an abortion, you paid for it.

5. Federal grants for college have a few ways they contribute to abortion access. The first being: MED SCHOOL. I think that one speaks for itself. The second: financial aid refund checks. Yeah, the one that students have to stretch out across the semester to ensure they can survive. In more than a few cases I can assure you her survival consisted of scraping together what the private abortion funds couldn't cover.

And those are only a few ways that your tax dollars are "fungible" when it comes to abortion. And it has nothing to do with what money Planned Parenthood gets. You see, even if you do succeed in destroying the only access to adequate reproductive health care that poor people have, you will still, under the great law of Fungibility, still be paying for these abortions. Your only solution, in this case, will be to stop paving roads, sending people to college, having a police department, or paying government employees. In other words, you'd have to stop paying taxes completely.

But the rational choice would be to drop all this HR3 crap and keep all funding for Planned Parenthood to ensure the further prevention of that which you don't want. Defunding them to prevent abortion is as counterproductive as trying to stop war by attacking other countries or setting something on fire to cool it off. That said, it's time to do the responsible thing and contact your state representatives. Stop letting a complete fallacy strip impoverished people of their right to reproductive health care.

Furthermore (Trigger Warning)

On a side note, I feel I should include not only what I Mean When I say Choice, but also how I feel Choice pertains to me specifically.

The prochoice community has long heard the argument from the antis of the Holy Trinity of Abortion Exceptions: rape, incest, medical necessity. What nice, neat little boxes they are. Too bad life is never nice or neat, nor do the lives of women fit into neat little boxes. Today I’m going to elaborate on pregnancy by rape and how I feel differently about it now than I did as an antichoicer.

There is no denying that sexual assault is quite probably the single worst thing anyone could ever experience. To have one’s right to their own body and their own safety stripped from them is the single worst act I can think of. Until we review the aftermath. Not only is this person (specific to this post, this woman) violated and robbed of her bodily autonomy, but then she faces the chances of a pregnancy that was the result of violence. This is where the Holy Trinity of Abortion Exceptions comes in to play. Even most antis will say “Well if she was raped, then it’s not her fault! She should have an abortion if that happens.”

Really? She “should”? How is telling a rape survivor that she should have an abortion any different than telling her she shouldn’t? Both indicate pressure against the survivor to “choose” one thing specifically. It’s not much of a choice if someone is making it for you, is it? “Shouldn’t” she have the authority to choose what’s best for her in that situation?

Conversely, we have the argument from the other side of the antis crying out “But it’s not the BAYBEEZ fault! She should have it! Don’t kill the BAYBEE!!” We’re pretty well used to these types. But for the sake of argument: NO!!! No she shouldn’t! She shouldn’t do anything that isn’t her decision completely!

This barking at rape survivors about what they should/shouldn’t do in the event of pregnancy is ALL antichoice. Those of you in the Holy Trinity group, maybe the best thing for this woman wouldn’t be an abortion. Those of you in the No Exceptions group, maybe having this child would be the worst thing for her. And for both of you, the only right choice IS. HER. CHOICE. End of discussion, guys! It is HER mental stability at stake. It is HER physical health at stake. Not yours. You have no clue what she should or shouldn’t do because it isn’t your mind, your body, or your life.

It’s something I’ve thought of over and over again, not only as a prochoice woman, but also as a rape survivor. Had someone asked me years ago, when my mind was still riddled with antichoice propaganda, I would have said that in the situation of sexual assault I would probably seek an abortion. Interestingly, had one asked me even years before that (and under even heavier layers of propaganda) I would have felt it was my obligation to carry that pregnancy. But now… that has changed for me. Prochoice has taught me that IT. IS. MY. CHOICE. If the circumstances are mine, even if they were beyond my control, the choice is mine. Even the choice to continue a pregnancy that most would consider damaging, the choice is still mine! No one can take that from me!

Once that thought occurred to me, I realized that, were I suffer an assault again, I really firmly believe that were I to become pregnant I’d continue the pregnancy and be able to raise that child. Of course, this is me thinking hypothetically and in hindsight. Were this to happen to me again (God willing, or what other Powers That Be, I hope it never does) I could very well feel differently. But that is still prochoice. The fact that I have the right to choose for myself, to choose for my life under any circumstances, is prochoice. And for an anti to tell a woman like me that I “should” choose abortion because it would be due to rape only further proves how antichoice they truly are. They don’t just want to oppose abortion. They want to oppose every choice a woman wants to make for herself.

Now please don’t mistake what I’ve said about myself as an indication that I would oppose abortion after a sexual assault for any woman. That is not at all the case. I would never impose what is good for me as an obligation for someone else. Hell, I wouldn’t oppose it for any woman under any circumstance. This simply me stating how being prochoice has put my life and my rights back in my hands, and in no one else’s. I have the right to choose what’s best for me, even if that’s choosing to keep a pregnancy that resulted from rape. Prochoice gave me back my mind, my body, and my right to decide in the best interest of me.