No More Funding for Planned Parenthood

Michelle Malkin has an article today about Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (commonly referred to as simply Planned Parenthood) has a number of roles in today's world. They are most widely known for their defense of abortion rights. In Michelle's article today, she, "…turns the spotlight on the nefarious business practices of the government-funded, billion-dollar Planned Parenthood empire." Michelle argues that if Congress is going to interrogate the practices of other industries like oil, tobacco, banking, (and I would add baseball), when are they going to look at Planned Parenthood?

Before reading the article, I had no idea that Planned Parenthood received taxpayer funding. Michelle has looked at the annual report for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and found they, "… had a total income of $1.02 billion – with reported profits of nearly $115 million,"{emphasis mine}. One third of the entire budget for Planned Parenthood is provided in the form of State and Federal grants and contracts. That is $336 million of taxpayer funds going to a group that encourages and helps provide abortions.

Michelle's article is very disturbing in its implications. Why are taxpayer funds being used to fund abortions? Why at this level? After reading Michelle's article, I wondered why Planned Parenthood was getting one red cent of tax payer money? According to the Planned Parenthood website, the group pursues a number of activities. Those activities include: providing reproductive healthcare for men, women, and teens (with affordable products according to the website); providing "honest sexuality and relationship information in the classroom" for "young people"; and "leading the reproductive health and rights movement". The last activity is a very nice way of saying "fighting for abortions".

Many Americans disagree with Planned Parenthoods take on these issues, and disagree with their means. Should those Americans be forced to help fund Planned Parenthood? Shouldn't Planned Parenthood justify their need for hundreds of millions of dollars of tax money when they have a total income of over one billion dollars with over a million dollars in profits? They claim on their site that more than 400 celebrities volunteer with different Planned Parenthood boards. Perhaps that is a better source of funding than tax money.

Michelle Malkins article today covers some of the horror stories associated with Planned Parenthood. Some of them are very tragic. If Planned Parenthood believes in abortion rights and wishes to defend them, more power to them. I don't think the tax payers should be providing them with $300 + million to do it with.