Planned Parenthood’s devotion to this deceitful claim becomes even more curious when you consider how the group largely eschews a compelling argument that could be quite effective with Americans in the vast middle, who would prefer to see abortions neither performed nor banned. They could easily say:
You’re right. Planned Parenthood performs too many abortions. And the way to reduce the frequency of those procedures is not to reduce our budget for women’s health services but to maintain it – or increase it. That’s because our projects – free and low-cost contraception, morning-after solutions, counseling for family planning, even combating sexually transmitted diseases – are potent tools for preventing unwanted pregnancies. Feed us and abortions will fall; starve us and they’ll rise.
That intuitive but incredibly powerful argument turns the debate on its head. (Though it shows up from time to time in pro-choice discourse, it has played virtually no role in the current debate.) The group could even go further and solve the fungibility problem by pledging to cap at the 2016 level both its annual abortions per year and the percentage of its budget spent on abortion.
Particularly now that Republicans control all branches of government, why can’t Planned Parenthood go for the win by using this elegant case, plus policies to thwart the fungibility argument?
The answer is simple: many leaders of the “reproductive rights” movement consider abortion a
positive good, something Planned Parenthood should never apologize for or cut back on. When this particular controversy came to light, its president Cecile Richards tweeted, “Planned Parenthood is proud to provide abortion—a necessary service that’s as vital to our mission as birth control or cancer screenings.”
I wouldn’t object to government funding of a non-radical women’s health organization – even one that provides a limited number of abortions – if it shares the goal of most Americans to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies so much that abortions are an afterthought.
Planned Parenthood, however, is not that organization. It is run by extremist feminists proud of facilitating abortion for anyone who wants one at any time for any reason. A blindly ideological organization so out of step with the worldview of most Americans does not deserve a half-billion taxpayer dollars.
But Planned Parenthood’s extremism needn’t be permanent, and dismantling the group would be tragic. Its sophisticated infrastructure helps many Americans at vulnerable moments. Planned Parenthood donors and board members, do you want to persuade skeptical Americans to support federal funding? Demand that the organization adapt to the tenor of the times and focus on non-controversial ways to further its eponymous mission: Planned Parenthood.
Then we can talk.
“It’s already illegal for federal funds to be spent on abortion” just isn’t credible.
dailycaller.com