As movement conservatives, you and I are committed to advancing the WHOLE conservative agenda, from smaller government, to lower taxes, to pro-life and pro-family bills. Today, we have a GREAT opportunity to do just that.
Title X Family Planning data reflects that in 2005, federally funded clinics served over 5 million individuals, with an estimated 900,000 unintended pregnancies averted as a result. Obviously, these are necessary services. However, organizations that choose to also provide abortions as a method of family planning should not have their operational costs offset by the tax dollars of millions of Americans who morally oppose abortion.
Planned Parenthood's annual reports show that it receives hundreds of millions of dollars from Federal and State governments. Their 2003-2004 Annual Report stated that almost one-third of the organization's $810 million in total revenue -- $265.2 million -- came from "Government Grants and Contracts."
Furthermore, a GAO study determined that, during the five-year period from fiscal year 1997 to fiscal year 2001, Planned Parenthood and its affiliates received $661.5 million in federal funding for "reproductive health activities."
Current law prohibits the use of Title X family planning funds "in programs where abortion is a method of family planning;" and current regulations require some form of separation between federally-funded family planning services and abortions. However, the current regulations do not contain a descriptive standard of what constitutes "separation." They only require the level of separation to be more than "mere bookkeeping."
Separation of accounting records and separation of facilities within the same building is not enough.
When Title X money goes to clinics that provide both abortions and family planning services, even though the money cannot directly fund abortion "programs," as the law referenced above states, it is being used to offset operational costs with federal funds, which frees up more money to provide abortions.
How can we justify giving this much federal money to an organization that performed approximately 250,000 abortions in 2005 alone? Why should we sustain and underwrite private abortion providers with the tax dollars of millions of pro-life Americans?
Common sense dictates that we shouldn't -- but as we know all too well, common sense doesn't prevail on Capitol Hill; it needs a grassroots push. And that's where YOU come in!
TAKE ACTION: Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) is planning to introduce his new bill, the "Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act," this week, to insure that none of the taxpayer funds in Title X can be awarded to entities that perform abortions, or that provide funds to another entity that performs abortions, other than in special cases such as the life of the mother. It does not prevent any federal funds from going to family planning organizations, and it does not cut any family planning funding. It simply ensures that Federal tax dollars are not used in any way by entities that perform abortions.
This is the kind of common-sense legislation we need. Click below NOW to send a FREE message to your Congressman, asking him or her to support the "Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act," to stop the flow of federal funds to abortion providers:
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