The vast majority of Americans don’t want their money going to support abortion. Yet, a just-released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows that citizens have paid over a billion dollars in federal funds — ahem, their tax money — to six organizations that promote and even commit abortions. And that was just between the years 2002 and 2009.
How does this happen? Taxpayers are funding groups like Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and the Population Council for family planning services under Title X. Abortion advocates say that tax money is not being used for abortions. But you and I both know that if you’re paying the rent and utility bills for a Planned Parenthood office and providing the funds for pregnancy testing and “counseling,” you are pretty much subsidizing the other activities in that office.
Even the groups not directly providing abortions, like the Sexuality Information and Education Council for the United States (SIECUS), serve as recruiters, pointing their clients — our children — directly to the doors of the local abortion clinic. Advocates for Youth, another beneficiary of federal funds, helps minor girls dodge parental notification and consent requirements to avoid the need for “a riskier procedure to end the pregnancy” and “complications from pregnancy.”
PPFA’s own records show that its affiliates committed 305,000 abortions in 2007 (the last reported year), while they reported a scant 4,912 adoption referrals and 10,914 prenatal clients the same year; family planning indeed!
Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America’s president, appeared on CBN News this week on this very issue and reminds us of Planned Parenthood’s recent outrages like failure to report suspected sexual abuse of minors:
These groups are being supported by more than just Title X, though. Our tax money is being misdirected to abortion groups through the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to States, Social Services Block Grants, and even Temporary Assistance for Needy Families! Imagine that, money directed to aid families in need — and there are plenty of those these days — is going to abortion providers!
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) has introduced the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, H.R. 614, which would stop government funding of abortion providers. This bill doesn’t reduce the money available for genuine family planning services; it simply prohibits government funds from going to abortion providers. Some of our good friends and heroes support this bill, like Reps. Joseph Pitts (R-Pennsylvania), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington), and Trent Franks (R-Arizona). It’s time for fiscal responsibility, and ending federal subsidies for the abortion industry is a great place to start.