U.S. taxpayers provide $528 million annually to Planned Parenthood for the purpose of family planning and women’s health services. Is it an appropriate expenditure of public funds? Let’s look at what Planned Parenthood is.
Planned Parenthood provides a variety of services, primarily related to sexual and reproductive health. Included in these services are abortion procedures, contraception, HIV testing, sterilizations, pregnancy tests and more.
Planned Parenthood likes to make the claim it also provides adoption referral services and in a literal sense, it does refer out people who decide to go the adoption route for their unborn child, but let’s put that part of its business in perspective. Planned Parenthood saw nearly 2.7 million unique clients in 2014. On those clients, Planned Parenthood performed 328,000 abortions. In that same year, it provided 1,880 referrals to other agencies for adoptions. Hardly a balanced effort.
Planned Parenthood revenue from non-government health services income and government health services grants/reimbursements totals more than $833 million annually. Total Planned Parenthood revenue from adoption referrals? Zero. Zilch. Saving a baby doesn’t pay a cent.
What apparently does pay is the sale of baby body parts. Undercover videos show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of baby parts and haggling over price. They specifically talk about how they can maximize the income. Despite being caught red-handed, Planned Parenthood tries to dismiss this with denials that it has ever sold baby parts. It claims instead that “fetal tissue” transactions were simply donations. More video has been released clearly showing otherwise.
Other details of Planned Parenthood tend to alarm and offend a great deal of the American public when the public hears the details. Planned Parenthood actually opposes all abstinence programs. Like adoption, abstinence doesn’t generate any cash for operations.
Planned Parenthood also strongly opposes laws requiring parental involvement in minor girls’ abortions. If your 14-year-old daughter wants an aspirin from the school nurse, most states require parental consent. If that same daughter finds herself pregnant, however, Planned Parenthood doesn’t believe mom and dad need to know or participate in her abortion decisions.
The bottom line is Planned Parenthood pushes those services that generate cash for its own coffers. About a third of its revenue is tied directly to abortions. Planned Parenthood itself offers no adoption services and makes only a handful of adoption referrals annually while aborting hundreds of thousands of babies. It opposes abstinence and doesn’t think parents should be involved for even the youngest pregnant girls.
Worst of all, Planned Parenthood is selling baby parts like a commodity — and then lying about it.
Is any of this reflective of the values of most Americans? Clearly not.
Regardless of whether you call yourself pro-life or pro-choice, reach out to your elected officials and let them know Planned Parenthood isn’t an appropriate expenditure of public funds.
Support women’s reproductive health but not in the form of this offensive and out-of-touch agent, Planned Parenthood. Defund Planned Parenthood. Now.
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