Good reasons not to fund Planned Parenthood

Pro-choice folks joined the pro-life community in condemning Planned Parenthood trafficking in aborted baby parts, particularly the cavalier attitude of senior officials. Despite these developments, many defenders of PP were not yet willing to defund the organization, pointing to the other services provided.

Although their clinics do provide needed help for low-income families, defunding PP would not eliminate these services. There are about 800 PP clinics in the US. There are over 8,000 community health organizations that provide comparable and in some cases more comprehensive services.

However, there are other reasons for defunding PP.

PP agreed to pay $4.3 million for fraudulently billing Medicaid by some of its Texas clinics. Furthermore, summaries of state audit of family planning programs have indicated similar abuse and fraudulent practices by PP affiliates to the tune of $8 million across nine states.

PP received approximately $540,000 in taxpayer funding last year, dollars that could go to other community health clinics that provide comparable and in some cases superior service, such as mammograms.

Because of recent revelations, and the questionable culture and ethics that have been uncovered, we taxpayers should no longer fund Planned Parenthood.

Richard Kaiser

Elk Grove