Editors note: This piece was co-authored by Ken Blackwell.
As part of the debate over the final Fiscal Year 2011 continuing resolution, members of Congress faced a choice — whether to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, or to continue sending taxpayer dollars to this group. The question was simple. Should American families be required to provide millions of dollars in funding to an organization responsible for over 300,000 abortions in 2009?
The organization’s funding survived by a thread.
Though the House voted overwhelmingly to defund Planned Parenthood, in the Senate, every single Democrat voted to maintain taxpayer funding. According to credible reports, maintaining this funding was a line in the sand for President Obama.
Yet the pro-family organizations that promoted this issue must not be discouraged by the outcome. The pro-life citizens who elevated the issue of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood can hold their heads high. In exposing Planned Parenthood for what it is, we have set the stage for a victory that might not come tomorrow, but eventually will come. Due to the dogged work of pro-life citizens committed to defunding Planned Parenthood’s pro-abortion agenda, the days of Planned Parenthood feasting on taxpayer dollars are numbered.
Putting Planned Parenthood on its heels was a victory for ordinary citizens over the pro-abortion lobby. It was a victory of common sense over elite opinion. And it was a victory of facts over misleading statistics.
Those facts are pretty grim.
First, while Planned Parenthood touts all of the non-abortion services it provides for women, there is no denying that they are in the abortion business. For the year ending in June 2009, Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions.
Second, while their defenders were quick to assert that abortion only makes up 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services, the truth is that closer to 10% of Planned Parenthood’s clients receive abortions. Moreover, nearly 98% of services provided to pregnant women by Planned Parenthood involve abortions. In short, if you are a pregnant woman, and you go into a Planned Parenthood clinic, you are likely to walk out with an abortion. In 2009 a woman entering one of their clinics was 340 times more likely to have an abortion than to be referred for an adoption.
Third, its abortion business is a big money maker for Planned Parenthood. A conservative estimate is that 37% of all of Planned Parenthood clinic revenue comes from abortion.