The facedown in Congress on the federal budget must be about principles as well as absolute spending. No drunk will sober up if he only thinks about how much he drinks and not about why.
There is nothing more repugnant and flagrantly misplaced in the federal budget than the $360 million taxpayers annually send to Planned Parenthood. If we can’t eliminate this, it means either that the nation is hopelessly lost or that Republicans are weak.
Planned Parenthood funding must become the poster child for what is wrong with the federal budget. Why?
We can sum up noting that funding Planned Parenthood forces taxpayers to subsidize three sins. Lies, theft, and murder.
Lies. Planned Parenthood is on red alert because the House budget passed in February included an amendment by Cong. Mike Pence, R-Ind, that eliminates their funding. As result, they’re now in a full court press lobbying and PR campaign. Perhaps you’ve seen an ad they are running on TV? It shows a doctor explaining that Planned Parenthood screens for cervical and breast cancer and that the “House has voted to take away this care.”
Sad there is a doctor who would be party to this kind of lie. We’re led to believe that cancer screening is the only or main thing that the nation’s largest abortion provider does. Their annual report notes that cancer screening accounts for 17% of Planned Parenthood’s services. Federal funding amounts to one third of their $1.2 billion budget. My little grandson can figure out that cutting one third of a budget leaves plenty of money to pay for what amounts to 17% of it.
You’d also think that taxpayers are the only place that Planned Parenthood can turn to for funds. Non-profits raise hundreds of billions in contributions soliciting private citizens. Planned Parenthood’s annual report shows they get 28% of their budget from contributions, less than they get from taxpayers. This is an organization that supposedly believes in choice. They can appeal to private citizens to choose to contribute rather than turning to government to force taxpayers.
Theft. Planned Parenthood insists that, by law, they don’t use government money to fund abortion services. Those funds go for the rest of their work that they call “family planning.”
But the one of third of their budget that does come from government simply frees up the rest, part of which does fund abortion. You also have to ask how far you can sort this out. Which dollars go to plan, locate, and construct facilities – planned strategically to give easy access to low income, largely black women - that provide all their services, including abortion?
Just think about the “family planning” part. Where does our constitution put the federal government in the “family planning” business? In the People’s Republic of China the government is in the “family planning” business. And Planned Parenthood spends their tax subsidized dollars to pay millions to their lobbyists and PR firms. So we pay them to lobby to get our tax dollars to spend on activities the government should not be in to begin with. This is simply theft.
Murder. It is not an accident that nothing changes the heart of a confused young woman ready to abort than seeing an ultrasound image of the child within her.
As with slavery, one day American children will wonder how butchery such as abortion could ever have been legal in our nation.
Meanwhile, we shouldn’t be using tax dollars for it. Polls show that almost seven out of ten Americans oppose this.
No compromise on this one. No hiding under rocks. If we need to shut down the government, do it. Every politician must stand up for all to see who they are and what they stand for.