This notice from the state Health Department on the value of cervical cancer screening struck me as a touch, well, hypocritical.

Cervical cancer screening is among the regular health services offered by Planned Parenthood. It was a service paid by Medicaid for those eligible. Medicaid-eligible women are no longer able to use Medicaid for Planned Parenthood health screening in Arkansas on account of an edict by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. He has justified this by alleging, without evidence, unethical behavior by Planned Parenthood.  He and other Republicans object to payment of money to Planned Parenthood because it also provides abortion (in Arkansas, by drugs in the first eight weeks of pregnancy.) Abortion is a legal medical procedure. So is the use of fetal tissue in important medical research.

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Religion and ideology shouldn’t govern delivery of important health screenings by a legally and ethically operating provider.

In Arkansas, but not states governed by less ideological federal appellate judges, the restriction of women’s ability to use the doctor of their choice has been allowed to continue.

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