Planned Parenthood wants more tax dollars for abortions
By: Rep. Michele Bachmann and Marjorie Dannenfelser
January 23, 2008
It’s no great surprise that President Obama is requesting billion-dollar projects and programs. Just days after his election, he said that we shouldn’t be concerned about the deficit in the short-term because the government would have to spend our way out of the recession.
But, shockingly, the Obama White House is poised to go further than ever before by accepting the abortion industry’s recent demands for over $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds.
During last year’s campaign, Obama spoke of finding “common ground” on the life issue, but this massive handout is nothing close to a compromise. In fact, rather than building a bridge, it throws down the gauntlet.
This certainly isn’t the first time that the abortion industry has sought taxpayer dollars to fund their agenda. In Planned Parenthood’s 2007 annual report, it posted total revenues of more than $1 billion – with almost one-third in “government grants and contracts.” The funding helped Planned Parenthood provide nearly 300,000 abortions in just one year. Without really knowing it, the American taxpayer is footing the bill for the largest abortion provider in the nation. And it gets worse, under the Obama presidency that price tag will dramatically increase – sending millions more to the abortion industry.
Recently, the Obama-Biden Transition Project posted a report by more than 50 abortion advocacy groups, demanding massive increases in taxpayer funding and major abortion policy reversals. For example, they asked for a whopping 133 percent increase in funding for the Title X program, which funds Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation. They also urged repeal of every budgetary restriction on federal abortion funding.
Aside from demanding millions to fund abortion domestically, they call for a minimum of $1 billion in taxpayer funds for international abortion groups like the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It’s bad enough to force American families to fund abortion services here in the United States, but how can we ask them to send their hard-earned dollars abroad for abortions overseas?
But, it gets worse. Planned Parenthood recently announced plans to funnel the taxpayer funds it receives toward furthering their “new branding” agenda. According to one of its senior vice presidents, this “new brand” consists of “express centers” in suburban shopping malls where Planned Parenthood can expand its market from the low-income individuals it has previously targeted to more affluent would-be mothers.
How will the Obama Administration justify asking hard-pressed taxpayers who are worried about keeping their homes and paying their bills to fund services for middle- to upper-income citizens?
Furthermore, Planned Parenthood and – now the White House – appear eager to support initiatives that put themselves in the role of chief adviser to pregnant young women, consistently pursuing provisions that block parental consent requirements. Without the consent or consultation of a parent or legal guardian, Planned Parenthood is able to impose its pro-abortion agenda on young women in very difficult circumstances. And, if past is prologue, this will mean more abortions and less adoptions. In fact, between 2004-2005, Planned Parenthood performed 250,000 abortions, while only facilitating fewer than 1,500 adoptions.
No matter what side of the aisle you find yourself, the pain abortion causes women is well-documented: In the Supreme Court partial-birth abortion case of Gonzales v. Carhart, 180 women submitted affidavits attesting to the mental and physical pain they endured following their abortions. These testimonials are replete with evidence of long-term mental distress and negative physical side effects. Of course Planned Parenthood continues to downplay such evidence of the tragic impact of abortion in our nation.
The bottom line is, there is real consensus across the political spectrum that common-sense abortion restrictions deserve our support. In poll after poll, over 60 percent of Americans express support for restricting taxpayer funding of abortion. If there were ever a place for abortion policy that finds common ground, this is it.
Regrettably, Planned Parenthood has made a big business of abortion, with the help of unwitting American taxpayers. Obama has the opportunity to demonstrate real allegiance to his campaign promise to find common ground on abortion policy. But, that means building a bridge based on the consensus that women need our compassion and our help; not buying wholesale into Planned Parenthood’s big-business, abortion-on-demand agenda.
Rep. Michele Bachmann is a Republican from Minnesota.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is President of the Susan B. Anthony List.
This commentary was published in The Washington Examiner on January 23, 2009.
