Joe Levi:
a cross-discipline, multi-dimensional problem solver who thinks outside the box – but within reality™

Hatch: Eliminate Federal Funding for Planned Parenthood

Dear Fellow Republican:

It is time to reduce unnecessary federal spending. At the top of that list should be taxpayer funding of the nation’s largest abortion provider – Planned Parenthood.

Today, I joined with Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council (FRC) on an Open Letter to Senators, urging them to support H. Con. Res. 36 – which eliminates Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. I thought you would find this interesting and wanted to share this letter with you. FRC is a great organization and I am really proud to have been able to work with Tony Perkins on this. He has always been a great champion of pro-life and pro-family causes.

Open Letter to the Senate: Eliminate Federal Funding for Planned Parenthood

April 14, 2011

We are writing to you today on a matter of grave concern to families and taxpayers. As you may know, Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider – providing more than one-fourth of all abortions in the United States, 332,278 in 2009 alone. Yet it is also the beneficiary of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding. The time for eliminating Planned Parenthood’s federal funding is long past due. We encourage you to vote for H.Con. Res. 36, the enrollment correction to the Continuing Resolution FY 2011 (H.R. 1473), and defund Planned Parenthood once and for all.

Most Americans would be surprised to find out that their tax dollars are going to the nation’s largest abortion provider. For that reason, supporters of continued federal funding for Planned Parenthood have had to obfuscate about what this organization actually does. They wrongly suggest that defunding Planned Parenthood is an assault on women’s health or will eliminate federal funding for family planning.

But here are the facts.

  • While it is true that abortion patients make up 12 percent of Planned Parenthood’s clients, 98 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services for pregnant women involve abortions.
  • In 2008 a woman entering a Planned Parenthood clinic was 134 times more likely to have an abortion than to be referred for an adoption.
  • Between 2008 and 2009 Planned Parenthood received $363 million- one third of their income- in government grants and contracts from the Federal and state governments. The Government Accounting Office found that Planned Parenthood received a total of $342 million in Title X family planning funds from 2002 to 2009, and $657 million federal dollars overall.
  • Defunding Planned Parenthood will not eliminate any of the $300 million for Title X or over $1 billion in family planning under Medicaid.

While its defenders are quick to cite rules prohibiting federal taxpayer funding for abortion, this fails to account for the fungibility of money. The receipt of conditioned taxpayer funds allows for increased spending in areas outside of the abortion restrictions. Simply put, federal funding of Planned Parenthood does not decrease abortion, it increases it.

Some suggest that the interests of social conservatives and fiscal conservatives are at odds. The example of federal funding for Planned Parenthood shows that this claim misses the mark. American families and business are grossly overtaxed. Our nation is $14 trillion in debt.

In such a desperate fiscal situation, it is time to reduce unnecessary federal spending. At the top of that list should be taxpayer funding of the nation’s largest abortion provider. In the case of Planned Parenthood, there is no disagreement between social conservatives committed to the sanctity of human life and the rights of the unborn, and fiscal conservatives who want to put the nation back on sound fiscal footing.

We are committed to protecting the right to life of the unborn. The right to life comes from our Creator and is the fundamental philosophical commitment of our nation’s Founding.

Yet it is also true that taxpayers have no business subsidizing Planned Parenthood, which has nearly $1 billion in net assets and over $500 million in profits over the last ten years. Even without federal funding, Planned Parenthood can easily provide the health services to women that it touts as its primary concern.

We hope that you will support H.Con. Res. 36, and remove federal support for Planned Parenthood. Both families and taxpayers are demanding it.

Sincerely,

Orrin Hatch
United States Senator

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