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.
June 17, 2010 at 3:39 am
"Push hard on your elected officials to defund Planned Parenthood. Don't let this issue go away."
Amen.
June 17, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Beyond the Pale.
If WE don't push hard to end this…who will? No more time to sit idly by and wait for somebody else to write letter and call their Congressmen. It's up to us.
Most importantly – we HAVE to pray the Rosary to end this scourge on our country.
June 17, 2010 at 2:26 pm
I can't believe you didn't know the federal government funds Planned Parenthood or any of these other groups. In my state, MD, we pay for medicaid abortions; probably you do too in your state. Since you've become associated w/National Catholic Register you have been throwing in a post every now and then w/gratuitous attacks on Republicans, even though most Republicans probably voted against these funding measures just like they voted against the health care reform bill. You also state that the Republican president couldn't do anything about it. So why are you attacking Republicans?
Republicans are not our moral leaders. Our Pope, bishop and pastor are our moral leaders. In MD, we pay for medicaid abortions and have a "Catholic" governor who supports that policy. He has also recently discovered a necessity in our state constitution to recognize gay marriages from other states and use our tax money to give benefits to same-sex domestic partners.
I will not hear a word regarding any of this from any of my moral leaders. Governor O'Malley is a Catholic in good standing. His kids go to Catholic schools, he is a member of a parish etc. Won't hear any objection from the National Catholic Register either.
What I'm beginning not to believe is YOU.
June 17, 2010 at 4:38 pm
I say we wipe the slate clean and go back to basics in this country (e.g. Constituional order). Get rid of all social services provided by the government and let "charitable organizations" and philanthropists get back to the business of caring for people. If one thing was glaring in the health care debate, and still is glaring, the government does not care for people, it cares for the bottom line, for costs. Abortion is cheaper than keeping a kid in foster care. Get rid of abortions and get them out of the hands of government officials, by letting private industries and charities duke it out in the public sphere.
It seems to me that once things go into government "social services" two really bad things happen. Government grows and the citizens of same-said government don't care what services are offered. What happened to subsidiarity? What happened to civil involvement? What happened to charity – in the name of Christ – owned and operated by Christians (and all in the name of good will)? It would get people in this country involved directly, cut costs to government, and bring the social justice issues back into the heartland of America to its people.
June 17, 2010 at 4:49 pm
They all need to see how RACIST abortion is. If everyone would get the DVD Maafa21 (http://www.maafa21.com) and then be educated to how racist and eugenic abortion is we'd all be better able to articulate our reasons for DEFUNDING the nation's largest EUGENIC founder Organization whose founder gave a speech to the KKK. Check this out : Eliminating the “SMALL PEOPLE” http://saynsumthn.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/eliminating-the-small-people/
June 18, 2010 at 3:05 am
A couple of Republicans were calling for a truce on the abortion issue to prioritize the economy. Hopefully, those are just a couple of sellouts. I agree with SubVet. We need to push even conservatives otherwise, the pro-life cause gets put in the back burner. Politicians will be horse trading as soon as they get elected and it is the squeaky wheel that gets lubed.
June 18, 2010 at 4:02 am
Anon, I live in Maryland and the Governor may send his kids to Catholic school, he may do all the dotting of the i's and crossing of the t's. That doesn't mean he isn't morally culpable for funding these things even if no one says to him, "You should NOT do this." He's Catholic and like Nancy Pelosi, he knows, he just chose political expeidency. Going to Catholic school doesn't make you a Catholic in good standing, a Catholic in good standing is one who is faithful to the teachings of the Church in the heart, in words and in deed.
Everything else is window dressing.
I did not know abortion had been funded for the past seven years. I put trust in that Hyde ammendment. I'm sorry I did not know but I honestly did NOT know. And I would have considered myself an informed Catholic, reading the Post, Drudge, having the news radio of the beltway on most of the day and reading Catholic and argueably political and raw news websites.
To be fair, some of these organizations use their titles which do not overtly suggest abortion, to hide the fact that they support such acts. I'm also sure if we pinned down some of these people who voted, they'll give the intellectual slight of hand, "We didn't fund abortions, we funded other things provided." cutting into the overhead for the organizations to provide abortion.
But I will be paying closer attention and the other thing I would suggest, is moral people of good character, consider throwing their hats into the ring if we really want to see this type of funding stopped.
June 18, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Maybe I wasn't clear: the body with the moral obligation to tell us what our government is doing, especially when it is funding abortion with our money, is not the Republican Party but our Church.
We have Catholic newspapers. We have Catholic political groups, like the Maryland Catholic Conference and the political lobbying arms of the bishops, the Catholic Health Association etc. We have Catholic universities and think tanks.
Unfortunately, these groups are not reporting these issues (thank God for LifeSite News & the internet). In many cases they are actually working FOR abortion, gay marriage, contraception, etc.
40 years ago, abortion was a crime in all 50 states. "Gay marriage" was unheard of. Today, it is Catholic politicians, like Pelosi, O'Malley, Kennedy, Kerry, Biden, Dodd, Mikulski etc. who are legislating these policies OVER THE OBJECTION OF VOTERS (even when we vote against these policies our political leaders and judges are overturning our votes).
Where did these "Catholic politicians" get the notion that these sins should be decriminalized? Most of them went to Catholic schools and university! I was told the mass was changed because priests wanted to get married–who knew they wanted to marry each other? Who first started associating words like "Dignity" and "Courage" with homosexuality? A founding member of NAMBLA was a priest.
My question to you is how many Catholic church organizations/"charities" do you support that fund the propagation of abortion, gay marriage, sodomizing and sexualizing of children etc.? This would include any of your money that goes to Catholic newspapers, Catholic organizations like the USCCB, your diocese or Catholic schools and universities where officials/priests/ religious/ teachers proclaim abortion, contraception, euthanasia, sex before marriage and/or homosexuality are understandable tolerable or good, LGBT and pro abortion activities and speakers are sponsored, and columnists/writers are employed/ contracted to write directly contradicting Church teaching and the Bible on murder (sick & unborn) and sodomy?
I would posit to you that there isn't one organ of the Catholic mainstream press that did not print in 2008 at least one article stating that it was okay to vote for pro-abortion and pro-gay "marriage" politicians or one article in 2010 that implied the health care bill was good.
And I would ask where do we get the report on how much money the Catholic church has spent in the last eight years on abortion/euthanasia (Catholic nursing homes & hospice) or promoting abortion/euthanasia and gay marriage?
I am tired of moral leaders like Bishop D'Arcy who actually stood w/students outside Notre Dame's honoring of pro abortion politicians and Martino who was retired right before the Democratic "Catholic" candidate for governor decided to announce he was changing his anti-abortion views get retired.
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/scranton-mayor-doherty-discloses-abortion-beliefs-1.229393
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1919969,00.html
June 22, 2010 at 2:40 am
Should we not pay taxes?