Mike Pence’s war on Planned Parenthood

Politico ^ | 2-16-11 | Sarah Kliff

[Darren McCarty]

Abortion-rights advocates and abortion-rights opponents don’t see eye to eye on much, but they do agree on this: Nobody hates Planned Parenthood quite as much as Mike Pence.

The Indiana Republican is on a one-man crusade to deny all federal funding to the group — not just the money it gets for reproductive health and family planning services, but every penny it gets for anything.

“If Planned Parenthood wants to be involved in providing counseling services and HIV testing, they ought not be in the business of providing abortions,” Pence told POLITICO in an interview Tuesday. “As long as they aspire to do that, I’ll be after them.”

For three legislative sessions in a row, Pence has introduced legislation that would prevent any entity that provides abortion from receiving funds through Title X, the only federal program dedicated to reproductive health and family planning.

This week, Pence went even further, introducing an amendment to the continuing resolution that would strip Planned Parenthood — and Planned Parenthood alone — of all federal funding.

.....

Planned Parenthood estimates it received a quarter of the $317 million in Title X funds appropriated last year. A third of its budget came from government grants in 2009, according to the organization’s 2008-2009 annual report.

Title X money can’t be used to pay for abortions, and Pence does not allege that Planned Parenthood has improperly used Title X funds to do so.

But Planned Parenthood performed 328,300 abortions in 2008, which would account for about a quarter of the 1.21 million abortions that year, according to statistics from the Guttmacher Institute. And those abortions made up 3 percent of the patient services that Planned Parenthood offered in 2008.

[Darren McCarty]

Planned Barrenhood needs no money. The US needs to balance the budget. There's a start.

[BelegStrongbow]

I’m not even bothering to wonder about any downside to a ‘war with Planned Parenthood’.

You know you’re on the right track if leftists like this author use the word ‘hate’ anywhere in the first three sentences.

[PDGearhead]

I wish Pence was running for POTUS. He has the guts to get our country’s morals back.

Not one dime for any abortions! And we should work to reverse Roe V. Wade.

[marron]

I don’t care if they supposedly do a good job or not. We’re broke. Thats reason enough to de-fund them. Let them go and get their own funding.

The federal government has no business involving itself in the kinds of things PP does, even if we have the money, they are stepping outside their jurisdiction. And, we’re bankrupt. Time to stop paying for things with tax money that we have no business being involved in.

[marron]

To be more clear; even if PP gets out of the abortion business altogether, we should not be funding them. This is an easy one, the new congress has been in session a month, they ought to have already de-funded this organization. Do that before coffee.