Different pro-life perspectives on the political battle to de-fund Planned Parenthood

April 13, 2011

As American pro-life activists rally support for a bid to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood, Pia de Solenni offers the insight that Planned Parenthood is using this political battle as a (very successful) fundraising tool. In fact, she observes, Planned Parenthood has an enormous fundraising machine, which generates huge volumes of public support even without taxpayer funding. So it might be more politically effective for pro-lifers to argue that the organization doesn’t need federal funding.

Meanwhile Joseph Lawler (son of CWN editor Phil Lawler) continues his analysis of the bogus Planned Parenthood claim that abortion is only a small portion of its business. It’s true that Planned Parenthood does many other things, but it’s also true that its revenue comes primarily from abortions, he says.

Well, in my view a business that performs abortions on one out of 10 female patrons and collects over a third of its revenue from abortions is an abortuary, for the same reason that a store that sells bikes to one out of 10 customers and gets a third of its revenue from bike sales is a bike shop.

The analogy works nicely, if the bike-shop customers who don’t buy bicycles generally purchase less expensive items, such as mirrors and tire tubes. Planned Parenthood does distribute condoms, but abortion is its big-ticket item.

 

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Further information:

• Memo To Pro-Lifers: Stop Supporting Planned Parenthood’s Fundraising Efforts (CatholicVote)
• More on Planned Parenthood (American Spectator)