Add this to the list of “Reasons to Defund Planned Parenthood”--PART III

Planned Parenthood (PPFA) recently addressed a room full of Capitol Hill staffers at a rally encouraging support for increased federal funding for "comprehensive sex education." As keynote speaker for the affair, actress Kate Walsh—who may believe that playing a Doctor on television qualifies her for doling out medical advice—showed her support for increased federal government support of sex education. As is standard operating procedure for Planned Parenthood, Ms. Walsh lectured the room on the "need" for comprehensive sex education in our schools, using inaccurate Planned Parenthood statistics as "proof."

Ms. Walsh, who serves on Planned Parenthood’s Board of Advisors, was quick to say, "Abstinence is not working. It’s a $1.5 billion program over the last ten years that has, quite frankly, failed." While she and PPFA President Cecile Richards were quick to advertise PPFA’s accomplishments in doling out almost 2.5 million contraceptive kits and performing over a million pap tests this year—they neglected to mention the increase in the number of abortions performed at the hands of PPFA Doctors across the country. This year, the number of abortions performed at PPFA rose from 264,943 to 289,750. Furthermore, while they took the time to question the current administration on their support for "real" sex education, they neglected to note that abstinence-only education receives one-tenth the funding that comprehensive sex education programs receive from the federal government. PPFA’s annual take from the federal government alone rounds out to over $300 million this year. (You can read more about the Capitol Hill event here, and access PPFA’s annual report here.

In light of this, it may be appropriate to hear about PPFA, in their own words:

* Planned Parenthood opposes any "legislation that would elevate the legal status of a fetus, at any stage of development, to that of an adult"

* Planned Parenthood believes pro-lifers are "waging a war on women," and claim, "this is the real face of Bush's compassionate conservatism—a war on women and children across the globe"

* Planned Parenthood actively ignores statutory rape reporting laws and campaigns against efforts to enforce or strengthen them (see previous post)

* Planned Parenthood would willingly accept donations for racist purposes (see previous post)

* Planned Parenthood promotes itself as a "non-partisan" organization, yet promises to turn out millions of votes and dollars to elect pro-abortion candidates to the White House, Congress, and State Governments

* Planned Parenthood reports that it is a "not-for-profit" organization and receives over $336 million in government grants and contracts. In addition, they had an "excess of revenue over expenses" of almost $56 million in 2005 and $112 million in 2006

* Planned Parenthood in Kansas claims to be "a trusted source of health care and education for thousands of women, men and children" yet have been charged with 107 criminal counts including failure to report sexual abuse and falsifying documents in order to perform illegal late term abortions

* Planned Parenthood in California has privately admitted to overcharging the state and federal governments by at least $180 million for birth-control pills, despite internal and external warnings that its billing practices were improper.