By Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D. , NRL Director of Education & Research
Rhetoric and passion can be powerful, but the truth is stronger still. You see, facts are stubborn things and in the end, passion and rhetoric have to yield to reality. This is doubly true with Planned Parenthood which consistently hides its dependency on abortion and the way it can and does use governmental funding.
Planned Parenthood has sought to minimize the depth and darkness of its abortion commitment by trumpeting far and wide the statistic that abortion constitutes “only 3% of its services” and the assertion that none of the tax dollars it receives go for abortion.
We have addressed the misleading 3% statistic before, but a quick explanation bears repeating. The percentage counts all services – abortions, pregnancy tests, the prescription of birth control packets, the passing out of condoms, etc. – as if they were equivalent services, even though abortion is obviously a considerably more expensive and far more profitable “service” than the rest.
The truth is that, at going rates, the 332,378 abortions Planned Parenthood performed in 2009 would easily account for not 3%, but at least a third of the group’s clinic revenues. That’s nearly $150 million, hardly an inconsequential amount.
As for the other claim, that none of the government funding Planned Parenthood receives goes for abortion, I’ll let a well informed pro-lifer from Collierville, Tennessee make the case.
A letter to the editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (10/17/11), offers this very helpful illustration.
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that Planned Parenthood is able to collect $100,000 in fees for its services. Let’s say its budget allots $50,000 to administrative overhead, $40,000 for other medical services, with only $10,000 available to provide abortion services.
Next, suppose Shelby County [TN] decides to grant Planned Parenthood $50,000 to be used for “anything other than abortion.”
For the purposes of this argument, suppose Planned Parenthood honors that restriction, and applies all of the county’s funds to its overhead.
The question is: What will Planned Parenthood do with the $50,000 it no longer has to spend on overhead? The answer: Anything it wants, including increasing its abortion expenditures.
You may have seen the local Planned Parenthood affiliate that is being spoken about, Planned Parenthood of the Greater Memphis Region, in other news stories of late.
This is the same affiliate where LiveAction reportedly recorded an undercover video in July of 2008 of a Planned Parenthood counselor allegedly telling a young woman posing as a 14-year-old girl to lie to a judge about the age of her supposed 31-year old boyfriend.
In March of 2010, this same affiliate announced plans to open a new 30,000 square foot “megaclinic” to house its administrative and medical operations.
I don’t know whether the letter writer got his information from NRL News Today, an NRLC Trust Fund fact sheet, at a meeting of his local right to life chapter, or simply dug up the information for himself on Planned Parenthood’s website. Whatever his source the facts and figures he cites helped to get his powerful letter published and noticed.
In the end, the truth will not be denied.
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