Abortion Foes' New Tactic: Go After Funding For Planned Parenthood

Wall Street Journal:

Abortion opponents are pressing state and local governments to stop sending taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, arguing that the nonprofit group has plenty of cash and shouldn't be granted scarce public funds at a time of economic crisis.

Planned Parenthood receives about $335 million a year -- a third of its budget -- from government grants and contracts to subsidize contraception, sex education and non-abortion-related health care for poor women and teenagers.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[sunnybunny]

This is not a new tactic. But I wonder if they could possibly realize how many abortions are caused by this (women who can't get birth control until it's too late)

[smarternu]

Here's a better idea - how about starting to collect taxes from churches to help out with the economy. They have more money than god.

[littlebuddylouie]

I live in one of the states mentioned in the article where these groups are planning to focus their lobbying efforts.
Yesterday, our largest non-profit facility for the mentally disabled announced that they are laying off nineteen workers. This is in addition to the widespread cuts in mental health and Medicaid services we've already experienced. Many of the severely disabled people that rely on those services are just as helpless as the "unborn" that these groups claim to care so much about.
I've yet to hear any outcry from any of these conservative groups over any of those cuts.

[Babzter]

Cut their government funding by 3% since 3% of their services provide ab orti ons. Happy now?

I am so tired of this issue. Millions are dying around the world and these folks want women's bodies to be in the public domain.

[goldrush]

Morally, if I don't believe in abortion I shouldn't have to pay for it. This works in reverse as well. If I don't believe in birth then I shouldn't have to pay for it.

Economically, if something is free then demand rises to meet supply, so subsidizing abortion does increase the incidence of abortions.

[Babzter]

Abortions have always been available and women will always have abortions. Making them illegal results in unnecessary death and discriminates against women who are too poor to afford them. They have always been "legal" for the wealthy.

No one "supports" abortion; we support a woman's right to NOT have a child. I personally do not condone abortions after the 1st trimester, but that doesn't give me the right to intervene in another woman's choice.

Would you rather pay for the unwanted child's support?

[PJBroughton]

If I don't believe in someone shoving their brand of "morality" down my throat, then I shouldn't have to endure it.

Do you also have an issue with your tax dollars going to provide medical care for the expectant mother and housing, health care, food, and clothing for the children after their born because their parents can't afford them? You shouldn't have to pay for those either. Many of these babies would be living in abject poverty, and possibly end up being abused, neglected, or abandoned.
But that's not your problem is it? Have you any idea what being placed in the system can do to a child? So what are the alternatives, forced adoption and back alley butchery?

I've seen too many children thrown out of their parents' home because of an unwanted pregnancy. Their "moral" parents' didn't favor sex education, available contraception, or abortion either.
You fail to grasp the reality of what you would force on a teen mother and an unwanted baby.

I'm incensed that my tax dollars are going to give greedy AIG executives "retention" bonuses for failing to do their jobs in the first place. THAT p****s me off!!

I don't understand how people think anymore...I just don't.

[Igetitnow]

I always wonder why these people who are so opposed to abortion aren't adopting all the babies they want to see born. Unless they are willing to take care of them, they should just shut up and go away!

[DelvinMcGee]

Good argument. By that logic a person who is against child abuse should also be adopting all abused children. Othewise they should just "shut up". What a ridiculous statement.

[haval2]

cut the $$$ going to whacko fundie churches that already don't obey existing laws. keep your religious beliefs to yourselves.

[Babzter]

Absolutely.

[who38]

I agree...and cut the tax exemptions for churches as well. The average taxpayer would be surprised what those taxes would do re/ budget reduction.

[Dissident Dexter]

No. just explain that our government is PAY TO PLAY. in other words, if you want a voice you have to fork over, and not just what you owe now, but also 230 some odd years of BACK TAXES THAT YOU OWE!

only the ignorant think that less education is going to help.

[darker]

The supremely "X-tian" mocking, greedy anti-abortion fanatics want all gov't funds for themselves
and their extremist groups.

Their "reverends" are after money & power and sell their
congregations' votes to Republicans. A marriage made in hell.

Enough already with Bush's corrupt spending on faith-based groups that vote for Republican corruption.

[SirReal1]

I am consistently amazed by the conservative perspective, whether fiscal conservative, social conservative, or the utterly brain-dead "I don't need the guvament for nuthin'" Grover Norquist brand conservative.

On this particular issue the fiscal conservatives suggest that it is about "how our tax dollars are spent".

This one always gives me a chuckle! It's as if they think that "if we don't let our tax dollars go to this, it will go away". Potholes, bridge maintenance, education, family planning, ABORTION, poverty, healthcare, ad nauseam, ARE NOT GOING TO DISAPPEAR just because your tax dollar isn't being spent on it.

[SirReal1]

The "social conservative" is even more dangerous in their thinking. "Its wrong to do _______. if we stop paying our tax dollars to prevent it, or fix it, it will stop happening!

2000 + years of history mean nothing to these folks.

The phrase "The best predictor of future behavior, is past behavior" is completely lost on them.

Their mantra is "That'll never happen in MY family". How many who lived by the same credo (prior to Roe v. Wade) buried their daughters after they got a "back room abortion" to "save" their family from embarrassment? I don't have the numbers, but I know it was a considerable number.

As for the "Grover" crew, they're just too damn stupid to even bother trying to explain the real world to. A Nation needs a Government, and the Government needs to provide services. It's that simple.

Grover's wet dream for America was Iraq in 2005. 'nuff said!

[DelvinMcGee]

you might make an attempt at reading the Constitution.

[slaxx]

i'm sure federal and state funding for v.iagra is still going strong...

[rosiebond007]

Good comment. I think that Medical professionals, male and female pharmacists should be able to withhold dispensing Viagra to males that they may perceive as being highly unsuitable to obtain the drug. Especially since men have been known to pass the drug around like a "dealer" to their friends!

(You don't find women doing that with their contraceptives!)

[SirReal1]

(You don't find women doing that with their contraceptives!)

That just made me smile.

Get ready, the RTL crowd is going to jump you now. "What gives you the right to prevent my spermies from impregnating your eggs?"

It's scary that so many of these people are simply incapable of understanding what a "slippery slope" many of their "issues" are. They never see the (sometimes inevitable) consequence of taking that first step.

A dangerous mix of ignorance and arrogance is necessary to embrace the belief "That will never happen to me or mine."

[who38]

Of course it is; however, the cost of birth control pills is not covered by most insurance plans.

The anti-abortion group is almost totally comprised of single males. Wonder why? Think this has anything to do with children? My guess is that it is a sublimated form of agression toward females. Like rape, the main motivation is power. But then, these folk support the right of a rapist to choose the mother of his child.

[adampap]

Here is a hilarious video of abortion protesters being asked what the penalty should be for having an abortion if it was made illegal: http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=zhqf77ubny

[adampap]

Oh man, I just noticed that sign that says "Equal rights for unborn women".

So you are in favor of equal rights for fetus that cannot feel (and hence not suffer from) their own destruction, but are not in favor of equal rights for fully grown humans who already have hopes and dreams, family and friends but happen to be attracted to the same sex?

That kind of hypocrisy is amusing in a sad kind of way.

[MomfromTexas]

Yes, this is another new tactic being used in the pro-life movement. I've recently seen a few bumper stickers that equate a woman's equal rights and feminism to being pro-life.

[who38]

Please don't refer to these people as pro-life. They are not.

[imusintheevening]

gay fetus' for choice?

[Babzter]

No same-sex twins!

[ecotopian]

If only we were as enlighrened as the Brits: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7773894.stm

[hrhkat29]

While I do admire the brits, I gotta say when I lived there for a couple months, it was shocked when I went to a dentist there. First off the healthcare (maybe just their dentists) was crappy. I went in for a cleaning, I hadnt had one in 5 or 6 months, and I went in and the dentist was like "oh you have some of the nicest most beautifully clean teeth ive ever seen." Now, Im going to admit, my teeth are very nice but they hadnt been cleaned for 6 months, so they were due, and he said "what do you want, you look perfectly fine to me" and i was like "I need a general cleaning, because i havent had one in 6 months"....this dentist laughed at me, and was like "usually we do cleanings on average of 1 to 3 years". I WAS SHOCKED, I said are you kidding?, it really told me alot about the teeth issue there, and alot of stereotypes are true....but other than that, it was a fun experience. lol...i was ranting...

[adampap]

Wouldn't their time be better spent combating something truly immoral like genocide?

Oh right, they don't really care about alleviating suffering because they think that a 2,000 year old book which condones slavery and stoning to death our children while condemning imaginary crimes like heresy, working on the sabbath, sorcery and saying phrases like "god damn it" is the greatest source of morality.

[hrhkat29]

lol i know

[who38]

Hear, hear.

[ThermoChemist]

If they're "truly" worried about wasted money, why not address these items (?):

[a] Bush Spent $1.6B on PROPAGANDA Efforts
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2815

[b] Bush Administration spends $300 million on "initiatives" encouraging marriage.

[c] Bush Administration spends $87.5 million EVERY YEAR for Abstinence-Only Education.

[hrhkat29]

I wish i was a young girl, just so i could go out get pregnant and then have an abortion...sounds like a fun weekend to me...anyone wanna join??

[hippynanainblingland]

How about being a young girl, so you could go out and get raped and/or suffer the incestuous advances of your uncle? And then get pregnant and be unable to complete your education, thus ensuring a lifetime of poverty for you and your kid?

Don't make sarcastic remarks of our young girls' plights; not all of them get pregnant by irresponsible choices, not that those irresponsible choices have been made after receiving thorough sex education, either at home or at their schools... and even if a girl (or woman) chooses to exercise her god-given sexuality, she can find difficulty doing so responsibly, what with the present culture of denying access to contraceptives, while making it oh-so-easy for men to procure erection enhancers... because men, and boys, are entitled, nay, expected, to claim their god-given right to sexual pleasure.

And for your information, not many any women, young or old, choosing to abort have an easy time of it: it is a heart wrenching decision, whether you choose to proceed with an unwanted pregnancy or not. But just because it is a heart wrenching decision doesn't mean that oftentimes it is not the best decision all around.

We all, well, most of us, love babies... enough to want the best possible life for our children. An uneducated woman cannot provide such a life for her kids, what with the dearth of help available once the child is born.

Continued below

[hippynanainblingland]

So abstain! say the overlords, not taking into consideration the above mentioned rapes including date rapes made possible with date rape drugs secretly slipped into girls' drinks, and the insistent incestuous proclivities of many young girls' male relatives... or better still, marry, even your rapist, if necessary, or the man you scantitly know, who may turn out to be a wife-beater...

But then again, if all unwanted babies were safely aborted, where would the overlords get their cannon fodder, or their minimum wage workers (indentured wage slaves), or their prostitutes, or their drug dealers (most of whom are people with little or no better alternatives for creating better lives for themselves, products of our 'wonderful' inner city schools, and more likely than not brought up in single parent homes, born of young sexually ignorant girls denied sex education, contraceptives and/or abortions, with little help from anyone), or their prisoners filling their private prisons?

So dream on, brother, your comment shows your insensitivity to the realities of those young girls you are so wishing you could be.