Planned Parenthood and taxpayer support

Excerpt from "Planned Parenthood receives record amount of taxpayer support, Fox News. January 8, 2013--Planned Parenthood reported receiving a record $542 million in taxpayer support in fiscal 2012, marking a steady increase in government funding despite Republican-led efforts at the state and federal levels to cut off that stream. The funding figures were included in the abortion provider's annual report released Monday. The numbers showed roughly 45 percent of Planned Parenthood's budget now comes from taxpayer dollars. Pro-life groups quickly seized on the report to renew their calls for Congress to "defund" Planned Parenthood.

"Americans are sick and tired of underwriting the nation's largest abortion business," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. The Republican-controlled House voted in the last session to strip federal funding for the organization but the measure did not advance. Separate efforts at the state level to yank funding have been blocked by the courts. Mostly recently, a federal appeals court in October blocked Indiana from carrying out a law to cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. According to the latest annual report, the $542 million in taxpayer support last year counted Medicaid money. The total represents a steady increase, up 11 percent from $487 million the year before; that amount was up 34 percent from $363 million the year before that.

Planned Parenthood also slammed a renewed effort in Congress by Black and others to strip certain federal funding to the group. The latest annual report also showed Planned Parenthood performed nearly 334,000 abortions in 2011, which The Susan B. Anthony List said was a record. Though federal funding is not supposed to go toward abortions, pro-life groups and lawmakers still suggested a connection between the increases. "Planned Parenthood has spent much of the last few years demanding that taxpayers add millions more to their coffers, citing their non-profit status and so-called focus on women's health. What have we received for our money? While government subsidies to Planned Parenthood have reached an all-time high, so too has the number of lives ended by this profit-driven abortion business," Dannenfelser said. Full story can be found here.

Commentary

Vice President for Government Relations Jonathan Imbody: "To draw your own conclusions, consider the following facts highlighted by my friend and colleague Sarah Torres of the Heritage Foundation, drawn from Planned Parenthood's legally required new annual report:

• • "Planned Parenthood reported receiving record taxpayer funding [$542 million in tax dollars] in the last reporting year, while also performing a record number of abortions. Planned Parenthood recently announced that all local affiliates would have to begin providing abortion services starting in 2013.
  
  
• "Planned Parenthood performed 333,964 abortions—a record for the organization that received 45 percent of its revenues from taxpayer-funded government sources during the 2011-12 fiscal year. According to analysis by Susan B. Anthony List, Planned Parenthood has performed almost 1 million abortions in the past three years alone. The organization made only 2,300 adoption referrals and provided fewer than 30,000 prenatal services.
  
• "Excess revenues exceeding $87 million and net assets of more than $1.2 billion.
  
• "Despite the half-truths spread during last year’s election—the organization does not and cannot provide mammograms. As Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) Casey Mattox explained following an ADF Freedom of Information Act request, no Planned Parenthood affiliate even holds the licenses necessary under federal law to perform mammograms.
  
• "Accusations of fraud and the group’s apparent willingness to abet the sex trafficking of minor girls should at least raise scrutiny of the organization’s federal funding.'

"A million abortions in three years. A 'nonprofit" with $1.2 billion in assets. Half a billion in tax dollars annually. The facts speak for themselves.'"

Action
Contact your Rep: Use this quick and easy form at CMA's Freedom2Care legislative action site to contact your U.S. Representative to support the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (HR 217). The House bill would ensure that Title X family planning grants are used for their intended purpose and not to provide a fungible subsidy to organizations that perform abortions.

Resources
Freedom2Care Planned Parenthood Blog
Christian Doctor's Digest Featuring:

• Abby Johnson, Former Director of Planned Parenthood Clinic
• Georgette Forney, Abortion Outreach Ministry