De-Fund Planned Parenthood Of Taxpayer Money
Remarks of Victoria Cobb, President of The Family Foundation of Virginia
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Planned Parenthood Funding Press Conference
Thank you for being here today.
As we prepare for another General Assembly session, we know the opposition we will face — and we know that the most well funded and organized opposition will be that of Planned Parenthood.
This national political behemoth had an income in Fiscal Year 2006 of more than $1 billion. Incredibly, nearly one-third of that income comes from the taxpayers of America. In its last annual report Planned Parenthood reported over $330 million in government — taxpayer — grants.
What is this money being used for?
While Planned Parenthood would like us to believe that its all for health care, nothing could be further from the truth.
Planned Parenthood is the largest private provider of abortion in the United States, performing more than one quarter of all abortions. As the national abortion rate has gradually declined in recent years, Planned Parenthood’s abortion number continues to grow by double digits. Nearly $100 million of their income is from abortion. But by counting other services that are done along with an abortion, such as a pregnancy test and contraception, as separate services, Planned Parenthood is able to downplay the fact that abortion is its number one medical service, and their number one goal.
It is an organization that has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on elections, targeting those elected officials who dare stand for the principle of life. It is led by Cecile Richards, the former chief of staff for current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a fierce partisan with deep ties to the Democrat party.
It is an organization that is working everyday to end abstinence education in our schools despite the widespread support of abstinence education by parents, replacing it with their own agenda, a so-called comprehensive sex education program that we believe results in more kids engaging in risky behaviors, more sexually transmitted diseases among our teenagers, more teenage pregnancy and yes, more abortions — from which they profit.
It has fought against every effort to involve parents in their children’s health care decisions.
It is an organization that supports the barbarity of partial birth abortion. An organization that fears beyond imagination the thought that a woman contemplating an abortion might have the opportunity to view an ultrasound of their unborn child.
It is an organization that has been accused of criminal activity. Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, who has joined us today, charged them with 107 criminal counts — 23 felonies and 84 misdemeanors — for unlawful late-term abortions and other abortion-related crimes. Kline’s evidence comes from subpoenaed medical records that indicate that Planned Parenthood in Johnson County, Kansas willfully neglected to report instances of child rape, forged viability reports, and performed illegal late-term abortions. Further, a district court judge in Kansas testified that he believed Planned Parenthood produced forged documents in response to subpoena.
As a result of those charges, Planned Parenthood and abortion proponents spent millions of dollars to take Phill out of office, something that were successful at doing. Consequently, the illegal activities in Kansas continue. Despite the fact that every judge who reviewed the case found probably cause, Planned Parenthood was able to delay any real court action to this point.
Should those charges ever be proved in a court of law anywhere in the country, Planned Parenthood stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding. The citizens of Virginia should not have to wait for that day.
For several years The Family Foundation and our many pro-family partners have been working to put an end to taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood in Virginia. This year we came ever so close and for the first time had budget language pass both the House and Senate that would have done just that, only to see the language stripped in conference committee negotiations.
Virginia taxpayers should not be asked to subsidize the activities of the nation’s largest private abortion provider. They should not be asked to subsidize their political activities. They should not be asked to subsidize the actions of an organization that operates under a cloud of suspicion and scandal.
As the General Assembly once again works to correct a bloated budget, with a deficit of nearly $3 billion, every potential cut needs to be reviewed. Taxpayers of Virginia deserve better than to be asked to subsidize Planned Parenthood.
Today, we are once again calling for the end of taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. When the General Assembly reconvenes in January, we will work to include in the budget language that prevents taxpayers in Virginia from being asked to subsidize the nation’s most extreme abortion organization.