Planned Parenthood is coming out swinging for one of the organization’s favorite liberal allies, Governor Tom Wolf, by throwing 1.5 million dollars into Wolf’s uphill re-election campaign. Governor Wolf was named America’s most liberal governor in 2015. This hefty donation to the sitting Pennsylvania Governor comes from the nation’s largest abortion provider, which receives $500 million from the federal government each year.
According to Planned Parenthood’s 2016-2017 annual report, this sizable funding source has increased from $336 million in 2006 to $543 million in 2016, despite the organization’s notable decline in volume of patients treated. Additionally, despite the organization’s claim that abortion is not the center of their business model, Planned Parenthood has increased the number of abortions performed by 10%, while also vastly decreasing the number of patients seen. The American Taxpayer is Planned Parenthood’s number one source of funding.
Governor Tom Wolf has been a strong ally for the abortion lobby, vetoing the Republican-dominated legislature’s every attempt to make abortion, safe, early and rare. Wolf struck down the state legislature’s bill to ban abortion at 20 weeks, calling the policy “a vile assault on women’s ability to make their own decisions about their own healthcare.” Governor Wolf is also expected to reject the legislature’s bill to ban abortions on babies with a down syndrome diagnosis, which has the exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother written in, calling it a attack to women’s healthcare. This policy would protect unborn babies with down syndrome from abortion based on their disability. The bill passed the state house and senate, but Wolf has vehemently opposed the legislation from its origin. Planned Parenthood also has historically stood against this legislation in other states.
Wolf’s GOP opponent, former state senator Scott Wagner, is a proponent of the opposite view on abortion. Wagner has been a co-sponsor of multiple pieces of pro-life legislation, including the aforementioned 20 week abortion ban, protection of unborn babies with down syndrome, and a statewide defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood is one of Democrats’ most crucial supporters, pumping virtually the same amount of resources into pro-abortion, Democratic candidates as the National Rifle Association (NRA) donates to Second Amendment allies. Unlike the NRA, however, Planned Parenthood keeps its doors open via the federal government and the wallet of the American Taxpayer, while the NRA is funded, by the choice of 6 million law-abiding Americans. In the 2016 election, Planned Parenthood spent $38 million on candidates who would serve as their allies in Washington. The organization seems to be following the same trend in the crucial midterm election, already racking up $20 million in donations as of April 2018.
Governor Tom Wolf is set on another four-year term as Governor of the Commonwealth, and special interest allies such as Planned Parenthood are geared up to fight to ensure that Wolf wins a second term.