You know that tripe that the federal government doesn’t fund abortions? Well, explain this government report that shows how our federal government gave nearly $1 billion of taxpayer dollars to organizations that perform and/or advocate abortions over the past seven years, including $657.1 million just to Planned Parenthood.

iMark Hemingway reports on a GAO report that details spending from 2002-2009:

Over the seven year period studied in the report, Planned Parenthood received $657.1 million in tax dollars; Population Council received $284.3 million, the Guttmacher Institute received $12.7 million, Advocates for Youth received $8.7 million, and the International Planned Parenthood Federation received $3.9 million.

All in all, $966.7 million tax dollars went to encouraging a practice a plurality of Americans finds morally wrong.

You know what really kills me about this is knowing that we had a Republican President and a Republican congress for so many years and the massive funding stream of death continued unabated.

Defunding the death eaters should have made sense to social conservatives and fiscal conservatives yet it was never done. One has to ask “Why?”

And you want to know what the answer is – Republicans had the pro-life vote. We worked to get George W. Bush elected. They just needed to throw us a bone every once in a while. They didn’t care enough to actually stop the funding of abortion to pick a political fight.

I guess all we can do now is look ahead and now that we have these GAO numbers thanks to Congressman Mike Pence we must stay on this issue until Planned Parenthood is completely defunded.

Congressman Mike Pence did come out quickly with a statement calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood:

“This report confirms that the largest abortion provider in America is being bankrolled by American taxpayers. In these tough economic times, there is simply no reason why taxpayer money should go to fund the activities of abortion providers and equip them with the resources they need to end innocent human life.

“We must stop providing taxpayer dollars to abortion providers through Title X. We must put an end to Americans unwillingly providing financial support to the abortion industry. The time has come to deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood by passing the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List pointed to the disconnect between the American people and their government:

Time and time again voters have said they do not want their tax dollars supporting this industry, yet Members of Congress defy their constituents by voting to channel tax dollars to abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood. Women, the unborn and the American people deserve better than this.”

I’m so sick of Republicans not living up to their pro-life platform. But to defund Planned Parenthood we need legislators to do it.

I feel like a total idiot saying, “Hey everyone look how Republicans have been funding abortion for years but now in order to stop it let’s all get behind the Republicans!” But really what choice is there? Joining the Democrats would only make things worse. The only thing we can do is push the Republican Party into living up to the values which they espouse. Now is the time.

For years we’ve known that they lied when they said the federal government doesn’t provide funding for abortions was a lie but now we can prove it. Push hard on your elected officials to defund Planned Parenthood. Don’t let this issue go away.

Update: This issue is just one more reason Gov. Mitch Daniels’ idea of a “truce” on social issues is nuts. Cranky Con and Ace have more on Daniels doubling down on his silly “truce” idea.