LIFE DIGEST: ERLC, others urge suspension of funds for Planned Parenthood
- Oct 29, 2007 - 1
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and other pro-life organizations are calling for Congress to suspend funds for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) pending the outcome of a criminal case in Kansas.
The letter, which was signed by more than 60 pro-life leaders, urged the halt to federal funding of the country’s leading abortion provider after a Kansas judge found there was “probable cause” to proceed with a 107-count indictment against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. The charges, which were filed in Kansas’ Johnson County, included, the letter said, 29 counts of conducting “unlawful late term abortions,” 29 counts of “unlawful failure to determine viability for late term abortion,” 27 counts of “unlawful failure to maintain records” and 23 counts of “making false information.”
PPFA receives more than $300 million in federal grants annually. Its affiliates performed more than 260,000 abortions during the most recent year for which records are available.
The letter’s signers expressed concern Planned Parenthood may be violating state and/or federal laws not only in Kansas but in other states as well. “We urge you to act to ensure that our tax dollars are not subsidizing abortion clinics that perform possibly illegal late-term abortions,” the letter said.
Barrett Duke, the ERLC’s vice president for public policy and research, signed the letter. The signers also included representatives of Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, Christian Medical Association, Americans United for Life, Liberty Counsel and American Family Association.
Efforts have been made in both houses of Congress this year to reduce PPFA’s funding. The Senate rejected an amendment Oct. 18 that would have banned Title X family planning funds for Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform abortions. Senators voted 52-41 against the amendment by Sen. David Vitter, R.-La.
In July, the House of Representatives turned back an amendment by Rep. Mike Pence, R.-Ind., that would have prohibited Title X grants to PPFA specifically. The vote was 231-189.
Mo. governor initiates post-abortion study
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt recently convened without fanfare a task force to study the effects of abortion on women.
The development elicited praise from a national, post-abortion organization.
The Governor’s Task Force on the Impact of Abortion on Women met during the week of Oct. 22-26 in Blunt’s office in Jefferson City. The panel’s members, who are all pro-lifers, intend to study the physical, economic, emotional and societal consequences of abortion, a pro-life leader told the Associated Press.
Blunt told reporters at a news conference held on a different topic the task force is “a very informal group of good people who believe in advancing the cause of life and believe that we should minimize the impact of abortion on society. I don’t begin with [the] assumption that they will have significant recommendations, but they very well may,” AP reported.
The governor, who opposes abortion, said, according to AP, “I certainly would begin with the presumption that abortion has a negative impact on Missouri children, Missouri women, Missouri men, because it’s harmful to society.”
Janet Morana, co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, called the task force “extremely important work [Blunt] is undertaking. Abortion is more than a personal decision. It impacts entire families, communities and our nation as a whole.”
Ginsburg: Reversed Roe would devastate poor
Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn’t want the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade, and she doesn’t think it will. If it does, however, it will not prevent middle-class and upper-class women from obtaining abortions by going to states where abortion is legal in a Roe-less America.
Poor women are a different matter, the associate justice of the high court said in an Oct. 21 lecture at an Atlanta Jewish synagogue. Overturning the 1973 decision that legalized abortion “would have a devastating impact on poor women,” she said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The problem is abortion itself, not its possible lack of access in the future, said Kristen Hansen of Care Net, the country’s largest network of pregnancy centers. “Abortion hurts women,” Hansen said, according to World magazine’s webzine. “It changes their lives forever.”
If Roe is reversed, America’s 2,300 pregnancy centers will still be available to serve the poor, as well as other women, said Hansen, Care Net’s vice president of communications. “Women will always need pregnancy help,” she said.
Further Learning
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