OPINION:
What highly protected business, friend to the Democratic Party and recipient of nearly $700 million in annual taxpayer funding faces review as the Trump administration opens long-closed books? It’s an impressive list, but some sacred political cows have escaped inspection longer than others. The business is abortion, and the holder of the largest franchise, Planned Parenthood, has some explaining to do.
President Trump’s political enemies, including Big Abortion Pharma and Planned Parenthood, have long gone after Republicans with the same viciousness they employ against innocent life in the womb. Their aggressive election and lobbying operations net scores of Democratic political victories and serious cash, and their political friends haven’t been shy with U.S. taxpayers’ money.
Mr. Trump, it’s time to defund your political enemies.
The federal business of abortion can be found in mandates, long-established programs such as Medicaid, regulations and bureaucratic bias. A Make America Healthy Again approach to life in the womb would transform the debate from pessimism in the face of an adverse fetal diagnosis (often wrong) to hope for a future. As a mother of two children with a genetic condition, that matters to me.
In the Department of Government Efficiency environment, Planned Parenthood must justify its “services” requiring the compelled generosity of the American people. The nearly $700 million it received in 2023 amounted to 34% of its overall revenue. The Family Research Council noted in an explosive 2022 report, “Since 1993, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, has reported carrying out 7,442,666 abortions, all while receiving over $10.35 billion in total taxpayer funding.” Are we sure our money has been spent correctly?
Abortion is federal as long as we pay for it. Planned Parenthood has prioritized only one set of political friends, and they don’t have an R next to their names.
A television ad running on Fox News looks at the anti-Trump activism of the abortion lobbyists at Planned Parenthood. Corporate abortion took center stage last year at the Democratic National Convention.
The ad says: “Even off the stage at Chicago’s United Center, the Democratic Party’s national gathering — its first since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — has been dominated by talk of reproductive rights.”
Abortion was the only clear policy choice of the Harris-Walz campaign.
Planned Parenthood’s ”advocacy and political organizations made a record-breaking $69.5 million investment during the 2024 election cycle” while providing campaign space to the Harris-Walz campaign in Florida.
The “service” provided was lacking. Not even The New York Times says the nation’s No. 1 abortion vendor is in good shape, as reported in its February expose, “Botched Care and Tired Staff: Planned Parenthood in Crisis.”
After the release of disturbing undercover videos of Planned Parenthood haggling over the prices of the broken bodies of aborted babies, Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, chaired the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panels on Planned Parenthood and infant lives.
The select committee’s final report, issued Dec. 30, 2016, included evidence of financial misdeeds. It said: “Based on 51 known external audits or other reviews of Planned Parenthood affiliates’ financial data and practices, and 61 federal audits of state family planning programs by HHS-OIG, Planned Parenthood affiliates have overbilled $132.4 million in Medicaid and other healthcare funding programs. These audit results are troubling, given their limitations in scope, detail, and timeframe; in fact, of 57 U.S. Planned Parenthood affiliates, only 19 have been audited.”
While our money pours into the abortion giant, patients are fleeing.
According to its 2023 annual report, Planned Parenthood saw barely more than 2 million patients, compared with 32.5 million treated at federally funded and qualified health care centers that do everything and much more than Planned Parenthood, minus the abortions.
Defunding and debarring Planned Parenthood will not take money and care away from women in need of health care. Instead, like any employer with a health care plan, our government would give a list of preferred providers to those with Medicaid coverage.
Planned Parenthood knows it can be replaced, which is why it has gone to court.
A crucial case before the Supreme Court explores the question of whether a petulant Planned Parenthood has an absolute right to taxpayer funds. South Carolina, which is battling Planned Parenthood, argues that it can kick the abortion megaprovider off the public dole. This case has state and federal watchers engaged.
Where to cut? Let’s do the math. Planned Parenthood supports only Democrats, is bad at its job and is easily replaceable. Women don’t need it, and neither do Republicans.
To truly bring about Mr. Trump’s vision of reducing federal engagement on abortion, we must cut off funds to political agitators hooked on our tax money. It’s time to tell Planned Parenthood to fund itself.
• Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, with more than 1,400 groups on middle and high school, college and university, medical and law school campuses in all 50 states. Follow her @KristanHawkins or subscribe to her podcast, “The Kristan Hawkins Show.”
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