Taxes prop up 'dying' abortion industry
2 decades sees 2 of 3 'clinics' shutter doors
A new report asserts the U.S. abortion industry is in significant decline, held together largely through the $300 million-plus that federal taxpayers deliver annually to its major player, Planned Parenthood.
"It is very clear that the only abortion group expanding its business is Planned Parenthood, and the only reason it can do so is with the help of our tax dollars," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
His organization last year launched Project Daniel 5:15, which monitors and reports on the status of abortion businesses across the country.
Operation Rescue's goal in listing the names and addresses of abortion businesses is to encourage pro-life activists to maintain a prayer and sidewalk counseling presence at the sites and act as "watchdogs over the abortion cartel."
Just last week, WND reported 167 of the locations are sites for the prayer- and fasting-based 40 Days for Life campaign of pro-life activism.
Newman told WND that in the last two decades, two-thirds of the abortion businesses in the nation have imploded.
"The only place we see any growth is with government subsidies," he said.
While Title X funding isn't supposed to go directly for abortions, it does pay the mortgage, light bills, staff salaries and the like, he said.
Stop Planned Parenthood, an effort of the American Life League, promotes a petition demanding that elected officials halt the flow of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood, an organization launched by eugenics advocate Margaret Sanger.
The STOPP organization notes that recent annual federal tax subsidies to Planned Parenthood have been in the $320 million to $330 million range. From 1987 through 2003, the total was $2.7 billion.
The update to Operation Rescue's listing of abortion businesses confirms that five months ago there were 713 abortion business locations in the U.S., while that total now is 710.
The figures reflected the closure of five locations – or one a month – and the opening of new tax-subsidized Planned Parenthood megaclinics in Houston and Portland, Ore.
The assessment predicted smaller clinics in those areas would close as a result. The other five that closed, however, were not in those areas "and reflect a truer picture of the failing abortion industry," the report said. "The closures took place in Florida, Michigan, New York and Ohio."
"This news emphasizes the need to defund Planned Parenthood nationwide. Without being artificially supported with our tax dollars, Planned Parenthood would be closing clinics, not building new ones," said Newman.
Pro-life activists warn, however, of the potential of a massive new flow of federal tax dollars to abortion businesses through President Obama's proposed nationalization of health care.
Activists have been working to alert members of Congress to that danger and so far have built significant opposition to Obama's plans.
But even without the opposition, the $330 million annual federal taxpayer payments to Planned Parenthood make the difference between staying open and closing down for many of the locations operated under the organization's $1 billion annual budget, critics say.
Further, state officials in Alabama have acted against the license of a Planned Parenthood operation in Birmingham for allegedly refusing to follow a state law to obtain parental permission for abortions on young children. And in Kansas, there are 107 criminal charges pending against a Planned Parenthood business for allegedly illegal abortions.
"It is despicable that at a time economic instability when 71 percent of the American people oppose tax-funding of abortion, that millions and millions in public funds are going to bolster the bottom line of abortionists, many of which are violating the law," said Newman.
"Once Planned Parenthood is stripped of its tax funding, we will see their abortion clinics close down like a row of falling dominoes. That is a short-term goal for the pro-life movement that is completely doable and will save countless lives," said Newman.
His organization has documented that in 1991 there were nearly 2,200 abortion clinics, compared to 710 today.
Contact: Bob Unruh
Source: WorldNetDaily
Publish Date: February 21, 2010
Link to this article.
Send this article to a friend.
Illinois Federation for Right to Life
2600 State Street, Ste E
Alton, IL 62002
Phone: 618-466-4122
Web: www.ifrl.org
E-mail: mail@ifrl.org
