Some perspective is in order – and usually overdue – when hot-button issues are debated in Congress and aired in the press. Planned Parenthood, for example.

And Denverite’s Erica Meltzer offers a timely dose of perspective in the wake of last week’s U.S. Senate vote to let states withhold federal Title X funding from family-planning clinics that perform abortions. The legislation endorsed by the Senate would lift an Obama administration directive that had sought to prevent states from blocking the federal funds to clinics that offer abortions. The principal provider in question, of course, is Planned Parenthood.

However you feel about that policy or the abortion debate in general, it’s helpful to know the vote won’t affect Colorado. Meltzer reports:

Republican Gov. Bill Owens removed Title X funding from Planned Parenthood clinics here in 2001. That money now goes mostly to county public health clinics.

So, the Senate action was mostly symbolic for Colorado – and served only to reignite the abortion/Planned Parenthood debate in our state? Well, yes. As Meltzer makes clear:

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains includes clinics in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Las Vegas. The only Title X money that any of these facilities receive is a modest grant to perform vasectomies in New Mexico, Phillips said.

Here’s the link again to Meltzer’s full story.