I got nothing to add to this, just up over at TPM:

On Thursday night, hours before passing the tax cut compromise, House Republicans thwarted a bill that aimed to protect girls around the world from being coerced into child marriage. They opposed it because, they claimed, it might fund abortions.

That ordering of priorities is loathesome to me, but at least one could come up with an internally consistent argument to defend it.

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But, of course, this is your modern GOP, which means that,

The text of the bill does not mention abortion, contraception or family planning. Instead, it directs the president to make preventing child marriage a priority, especially in countries where more than 40 percent of girls under the age of 18 are married. The ways to do that, according to the bill: support educating communities on the dangers and health effects of child marriage, keep young girls in school, support female mentoring programs and….

One more thing. What might that be? Oh. I’ve got it. The bill would…

…make sure girls have access to health care services.

And we all know what that means.

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We do, don’t we?

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Well — the House Republican caucus sure does:

It’s the “health care services” provision that had Republicans riled, according to a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, whose name is on the whip alert and who voted no on the bill. “The concern was that the reference to ‘health services’ in the bill — under the current Administration — would include abortion services,” the spokesman, Michael Steel, told TPM.

Oh sweet proto-pastalicious mother of the FSM!*

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Heaven forfend that eight year old girls should have access to a clinic. Let no pious Republican allow any child, anywhere, come within a court ordered 250 ft of mention of the words “family planning.” Let any number of actual, breathing people suffer lest even the hint of ten cents of US taxpayer money somehow roll into the hands of someone who might have performed an abortion.

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The GOP is not a party deserving of or capable of exercising power. I’m sure the usual suspects will continue to dig up the least grotesque among their leaders to suggest that this might not be true — Mitch Daniels, anyone? But the reality is that the body of the party is hopelessly committed to a series of battles, agendas, and allegiances that will accelerate America’s regression to the mean. We can’t suffer their influence in safety much any longer

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Pars grandaeva delenda est.**

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*The virgin bucatini? The Sober Soba? The Unrolled Raviol? Inquiring minds want to know!

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**Thanks to the corrector of all the abuses I commit against Latinists everywhere, Ian Preston. Any other suggestions for good bad Latin for “the GOP?”

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Image: Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434