If we want to limit the number of abortions performed in this country, the last thing we should be doing is subsidizing the abortion industry. Yet we are. According to its last annual report, Planned Parenthood received $542 million in funding, or nearly half of its annual revenue, from various government agencies.
A big chunk of these dollars comes from a federal "family planning" program known as Title X. This is why Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has proposed an amendment that would prohibit any family planning funds from going to abortion providers. According to Blackburn, "In the time that it takes Planned Parenthood to do one abortion, it receives $1600 in taxpayer funding."
Steven Mosher joined with other pro-life leaders in urging newly elected congressmen to support Blackburn's bill, arguing that:
Not only is Planned Parenthood getting richer by collecting public bailouts for abortion services, they're also profiting off the taxpayer by making abortion services the core of their so-called family planning support - they try to push abortions on women so they can make more money. To make matters even worse, these big abortion businesses have been found to be complicit in promoting sex selection abortions, facilitating human trafficking, engaging in coercive behavior, and failing to maintain financial records in accordance with the law, just to name a few things.
To help address this problem Representative Marsha Blackburn (TN-7) has introduced the first pro-life bill in the U.S. House of Representatives on the first day of this session of Congress, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 61). Her legislation would prevent Title X federal funding from going to big, profitable abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood until they agree not to perform or refer for elective abortions. This is an important step because we can't afford the moral and financial cost to this country for innocent lives to be taken, especially when it happens with federal taxpayer money.
We respectfully request that you lend your co-sponsorship and public support to H.R. 61 and other pieces of legislation like it so that we can stop taxpayer funding for abortion and begin to hold Planned Parenthood and others who violate the law accountable. Thank you for your time and consideration to this important matter. (http://blackburn.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hr_61_pro_life_coalition_letter_1-8-13.pdf)
Many of these new congressmen may not know that abortions constitute more than 90 percent of the so-called "pregnancy services" that Planned Parenthood provides. Nor may they be aware that last year alone, Planned Parenthood ended the lives of one-third of a million unborn Americans, 333,964 in all.
If you live in a congressional district which has just sent a freshman congressman to Washington, call or e-mail his office and tell him.