Cui Bono?

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 30, 2010

One question too seldom asked in the debates over Obamacare was why, if the Health Care Reform bill already kept taxes from paying for abortion, was Planned Parenthood so vehemently in favor of the bill? After all, Planned Parenthood makes its money primarily from performing abortions.

Of course the same thing could have been asked about the need for an executive order prohibiting taxpayer money from paying for abortions under the bill if, as proponents claimed, the bill already protected against this eventuality. The answers to both questions, of course, is that the bill doesn’t protect against tax-funding of abortion; it merely introduces some accounting sleight-of-hand. And the executive order is simply smoke and mirrors, because the President does not have the authority to counteract duly passed legislation through an executive order.

Which is why Planned Parenthood is passing out accolades to those Catholic nuns who broke with the USCCB to help get the bill passed, despite all the claims that first the bill itself and then the executive order would keep PP’s business from the massive expansion it now expects.

Yep, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards wrote a column last week in the Huffington Post stating that the Catholic nuns of NETWORK deserve thanks for making “a critical demonstration of support” by their now-famous letter which “broke with the bishops and the Vatican to announce their support for health care reform,” resulting in legislation that vastly expands the availability of “reproductive health care” (typically a euphemism for contraception and abortion).

Cui bono? To whose benefit? It is always instructive to follow the money.