Defund Planned Parenthood

April 8, 2011

About a month and a half ago, the U.S. House of Representatives did something I didn’t think I’d ever see: it voted overwhelmingly (240 to 185) to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood (PP), America’s largest abortion provider and apologist. The vote was on an amendment to a temporary budget bill called a "continuing resolution."

To their credit, all three of Nebraska’s House members (Fortenberry, Terry and Smith) voted to defund PP. The U.S. Senate, however, rejected the House’s continuing resolution (for a variety of reasons).

The battle to finalize a permanent budget bill for the federal government’s current fiscal year continues today on a variety of fronts, including the proposal to defund PP. It is very much uncertain whether there is sufficient will, or votes, in Congress to actually end funding to PP.

Planned Parenthood should be defunded. According to its most recent annual report, PP performed 324,008 abortions in 2008, which comprised 27 percent of all U.S. abortions that year. Income from these abortions comprised 37.5 percent ($152 million) of PP’s total clinic income in 2008. Furthermore, abortions comprise 98 percent of the "services" PP provides to pregnant women.

Planned Parenthood insists that none of the more than $360 million of federal funding it receives is used for abortion. While this may be technically accurate, since the funding is largely for contraceptive services, it’s irrelevant.

What is relevant, and irrefutable, is that any federal funding PP receives, even if its use is restricted, benefits the entire organization. This is especially true given that federal funding comprises one third of PP’s overall budget.

Therefore, while PP may not use our tax dollars to directly fund abortions, there is no question that our tax dollars facilitate PP’s abortion business and advocacy as well as its vulgar, hedonistic philosophy and programs of sexual education. This philosophy is readily found on its website (especially under "Info for Teens"). Other information about PP and its founder Margaret Sanger can be seen online at www.stopp.org and www.ldi.org/library/.

Planned Parenthood has also tried to shift public attention away from its abortion extremism by insisting that women—especially poor women—will not receive health care services if PP is denied federal funding. This assertion is false. The amendment to defund PP would simply shift the funding to other entities that provide similar healthcare services.

While there have been previous attempts in Congress to defund PP, this year’s success in the House was largely attributable to the efforts of a college student, Lila Rose. Miss Rose is founder and president of Live Action, a group that has used under cover investigations to expose deeply offensive—and potentially illegal—activities by PP.

A couple of years ago, the investigations exposed PP’s willingness to accept racist-motivated donations for the purpose of funding the abortions of black babies. Another investigation exposed PP’s willingness to cover-up cases of statutory rape. Amazingly, these revelations received a collective yawn from most of the media and elected officials.

The most recent Live Action investigations were even more explosive, clearly showing Planned Parenthood’s willingness to exploit the victims of child prostitution. Shocking undercover video footage, from PP clinics in several states, reveals clinic staff assuring a "pimp" that they would secretly offer full access to abortions and other services -- despite knowing full well that the girls were underage victims. 

To see video clips of these undercover investigations of PP go to www.liveaction.org.  Also check out a new coalition of pro-life groups urging the defunding of PP at www.exposeplannedparenthood.com. This latter website urges (and facilitates) Americans to flood the offices of our Congressmen with e-mails asking them to defund PP. I urge you to do so as well.