Defund Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood has been a controversial part of the budget in recent years, seeing staunch opposition from the right and warm reception on the left. Advocates tout access to “women’s health services”, and its opposition wish to disassociate entirely from the “abortion mill”.

In response to the abortion argument, proponents of Planned Parenthood (PP) will often rebut that federal funding is not even allowed to go to abortion services. This, as many arguments from the left, completely ignores basic economics.




If PP is looking to spend more on abortion services, when they get their federal check, all they have to do is spend it in one area and use the funds saved by the subsidy to reallocate towards abortion. This concept is so self-explanatory, you’d think it wouldn’t need emphasis, but just because the dollars from the government don’t go directly to abortion services does not mean they don’t help Planned Parenthood perform them.

Abortion is murder. As a Catholic, I value the sanctity of human life and am obligated to defend it. Funding the nation’s leading abortion provider is antithetical to this idea. Anyone who believes in the importance of life should demand the immediate defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Disproportionate concentration of services on minorities

Planned parenthood was founded by eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who was quoted in a 1939 letter as saying “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.” Her vision is being realized today as around 35% of abortions kill black children. This number as a percentage of all abortions means that abortion kills more black people than die of all other causes in the United States. Shouldn’t groups like Black Lives Matter be the leaders in the fight against PP?

Conclusion

Regardless of whether you accept the premise of abortion as murder, or believe Planned Parenthood is bad on it’s own, you should defend the rights of those who believe it is immoral. If you really believe in the goodness of PP, donate to it yourself. Nobody should be forced to fund something that sickens them to their core. It’s time to pull the plug of funds from Planned Parenthood.