LIFE DIGEST: Planned Parenthood reaches $1 billion for year; Land urges defunding
- Apr 15, 2008 - comment
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the country’s No. 1 abortion chain, surpassed $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time last year, and Richard Land is not pleased a third of that income came from taxpayers.
Planned Parenthood made $1.017 billion in income in the 2006-07 fiscal year, an increase of nearly $30 million from its $972 million in 2005-06, according to its recently released annual report. Of its latest yearly revenue, $336.7 million came in government grants and contracts.
“It is outrageous that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion provider, continues to reach into the pocket of the American taxpayer to the tune of 336 million dollars per annum,” said Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Rep. Mike Pence, R.-Ind., again is trying to do something about the federal government’s support of Planned Parenthood. He is likely to propose an amendment this summer that would prohibit grants from going to Planned Parenthood under Title X, the federal government’s family planning program. The House of Representatives defeated Pence’s effort to do so last year.
“We don’t give any U.S. tax dollars to any foreign family planning organization that promotes or provides abortion as a means of birth control,” Pence said in a written statement. “It’s time the American people know the largest recipient of Title X funding in America is the largest abortion provider as well.”
Planned Parenthood received about $70 million in Title X funds during 2005-06.
“I join pro-lifers across the country in applauding Congressman Pence’s effort to rectify this egregious use of the public purse,” Land said. “I would call upon Americans to make their views on this matter known to their elected representatives.”
Planned Parenthood continued to increase its abortion business as well.
Its affiliates provided 289,750 abortions during calendar year 2006, according to its latest report. That total was nearly 25,000 more than in 2005, when Planned Parenthood clinics accounted for 264, 943 abortions.
Also, the total number of emergency contraceptive kits dispensed by Planned Parenthood affiliates increased to 1,436,846 from 1,240,516. Often referred to as Plan B or the “morning-after pill,” emergency contraception can have the secondary effect of preventing an embryo from implanting in the uterine wall, thereby causing an abortion.
The mounting abortions and revenue for Planned Parenthood have been accompanied by increased charges of illegal or unsavory activities by various affiliates.
California Planned Parenthood clinics have been sued for allegedly overcharging the state and federal governments $180 million. Investigations by UCLA pro-life students have uncovered Planned Parenthood staff members accepting racist-motivated donations. Various affiliates allegedly have refused to report the sexual abuse and statutory rape of underage clients.
Planned Parenthood’s latest report may be found online at www.plannedparenthood.org.
Some Asians in U.S. choosing sex-selection abortions
Some Asians in the United States appear to be expressing their preference for sons by using sex-selection abortions to produce male babies.
A new examination of the 2000 U.S. census showed an increase in the births of sons of Chinese, Korean and Asian Indian parents after they have one or two daughters, according to RedOrbit, an online science, space, health and technology site.
The authors of the research, which was published March 31 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said their findings suggested “that in a sub-population with a traditional son preference, the technologies are being used to generate male births when preceding births are female,” RedOrbit reported. The researchers surmised some Asian parents are using ultrasound technology to determine the sex of unborn babies, resulting in a subsequently inordinate number of abortions of girls, according to the report.
Douglas Almond, an economics professor at Columbia University, and Lena Edlund of the National Bureau of Economic Research reported there was an increase in the use of ultrasound among Asian Americans in the 1990s and the appearance of a gender imbalance in later births at the end of that decade, according to RedOrbit. Ultrasound use during pregnancy among non-Japanese Asian women in the United States grew from about 38 percent to 64 percent between 1989 and 1999, they said.
Almond and Edlund’s study showed the normal birth ratio in the 2000 census among Asian Americans for the first child was 1.05 boys to 1 girl, RedOrbit reported. If the first child were a girl, the ratio grew to 1.17 boys to 1 girl among Asians. After two female babies, it increased to 1.51 boys to every girl. There was no such difference among Asian births in the 1990 census, according to RedOrbit.
The male-female ratio among whites remained constant, Slate magazine reported.
Sex-selection abortion has been a growing problem in recent years in some Asian countries, where parents often favor sons, at least in part, because of a desire to be supported by them in old age.
China and India have led the way in using ultrasounds to identify females in the womb and then to abort them, with Nepal and Vietnam prepared to follow their examples, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported in October.
China, which has a coercive, one-child policy, had 120 males born for every 100 females in 2005, according to the UNFPA. India’s 2001 census showed the ratio nationally was 108 to 100, but some northern and western states had a ratio as high as 120 to 100, UNFPA reported. The normal ratio is about 105 to 100.
Requirement on abortion doctors proposed in Senate
A bill to help protect women undergoing abortions from harm by requiring doctors who perform the procedures to have admitting privileges at a hospital has been proposed in Congress.
On March 31, Sen. David Vitter introduced the Pregnant Women Health and Safety Act, S. 2788.
The bill would mandate a doctor who performs an abortion must have privileges at a hospital no more than an hour from the clinic. There is an exception if the woman’s life is threatened. The doctor also would be required to notify the woman of a hospital where she can receive care from him if complications ensue.
If the bill is approved, a doctor in violation could be fined and/or face up to two years in prison.
“While we are working toward the day when every unborn child is welcomed and loved, we are unfortunately not there yet. [The bill] will provide oversight of the abortion industry, which is badly in need of improved supervision,” said Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., a cosponsor, in a written release. “Too many abortions are performed under unsafe conditions, and too many women’s lives are at risk.”
Arizona governor vetoes pro-life measures
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed April 4 two bills restricting abortion, keeping her record perfect on the issue.
Napolitano, a Democrat, rejected a measure that would have prohibited partial-birth abortion and another that would have strengthened the current law requiring parental consent before a minor undergoes an abortion. In so doing, the governor extended her record of never signing a limitation on abortion rights since she took office in 2003.
Cathi Herrod, president of the pro-life Center for Arizona Policy, said, according to the Arizona Daily Star, the governor had demonstrated again “how radical she is on the abortion issue.”
There are not enough votes in the legislature to override the vetoes, the Daily Star reported.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Family, Children, Life, Abortion, Citizenship, Legislation