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Thursday, November 15, 2007                                            Derrick  Jones                                                                                                                                             mediarelations@nrlc.org

NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE TO CONGRESS:

"STOP FUNDING ABORTION PROVIDERS"

WASHINGTON –  National Right to Life, the nation's largest pro-life organization, today called on Congress to stop giving taxpayer dollars to organizations that perform abortions by passing S. 351, the "Title X Family Planning Act," sponsored by Senator David Vitter (R-La.), or H.R. 4133, the "Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act," sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence (R-In.).

"Taxpayer funds should not be given to organizations that are the backbone of the abortion industry, such as Planned Parenthood," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of National Right to Life, adding, "These bills do not call for a reduction in family planning funding, rather they prevent abortion providers from receiving tax dollars." S. 351 and H.R. 4133 would deny federal family planning funds to non-hospitals that perform abortions, with narrow exceptions.

According to its 2005-2006 annual report, Planned Parenthood received $305.3 million in "Government Grants and Contracts."   The report also shows that Planned Parenthood performed 264,943 abortions in 2005 – nearly 20% of all abortions in the United States.  While Planned Parenthood maintains that federal funds do not pay for abortions, this massive infusion of taxpayer cash has helped build the organization into the nation's largest chain of abortion clinics.  In addition, Planned Parenthood is heavily involved in pro-abortion lobbying.

Under the "Mexico City Policy," taxpayer funds are prohibited from funding private foreign family planning organizations that perform or actively promote abortion.  A consistent policy should be adopted for domestic family planning programs. "It makes no sense to guard taxpayer funds from being used by abortion performing and promoting organizations abroad but at the same time provide millions to the biggest abortion provider in the United States," said David N. O'Steen, Ph.D., NRLC executive director.

According to a recently published, detailed, and hard-hitting expose by journalist Charlotte Allen, "Planned Parenthood's Unseemly Empire" (The Weekly Standard, October 22, 2007), "abortion accounted for at least one-third, probably more, of Planned Parenthood's $345.1 million in clinic income reported for the last fiscal year."  Allen's entire article can be found at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/223livny.asp

The National Right to Life Committee is the nation's largest pro-life group, with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

read Charlotte Allen's new expose, "Planned Parenthood's Unseemly Empire" - (pdf-NRL Site)October 22, 2007