Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in passing the state budget has cut $1 million of Planned Parenthood funding. According to LifeNews.com, Planned Parenthood received $18 million in public funding in 2010 and more cuts to the "family planning service" are on the table.
In 2010 Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin received more than $18 million in federal and state family planning funds that it claims has reduced abortions. However, the abortion business did 5,439 abortions in 2009, a 56% increase from 2008.
Sen. Glenn Grothman, a Republican, said he is glad Planned Parenthood is losing some of its taxpayer funding in Wisconsin, but he wants to see the de-funding effort move forward with eliminate all or most of the remaining $18 million Planned Parenthood receives annually.
“There’s a very ugly side to this organization, and I regret that they’re going to take such a tiny cut in this budget,” Grothman said.
Tanya Atkinson, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Wisconsin claimed the cut in taxpayer funding would result in “putting women’s lives at risk” even though hundreds of other federally-qualified health care centers — some funded with public dollars — exist that provide the same or better legitimate medical services apart from abortion that Planned Parenthood also provides. Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms for women and refers out all of its mammogram testing to these other non-abortion centers.
Planned Parenthood only has to do one simple thing in order to retain their public funding: stop providing abortions.