Would it shock or anger you to learn that your tax dollars have been paying for abortion, albeit in
directly, for years? Wait until you read some new figures just out this week in a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
During this past winter’s highly controversial debate over the universal health care bill, Focus on the Family and CitizenLink, along with other numerous other pro-life groups, fought passionately, though ultimately unsuccessfully, to prohibit the legislation’s inclusion of federally funded abortion coverage.
At the time, pro-life advocates warned about the aggressiveness of the pro-abortion lobby. This week’s GAO release quantifies and highlights the concern about federal spending on abortion in dramatic fashion. Here’s how one pro-life group on the Hill delivered the news:
“The report reveals that over the reporting period the selected organizations spent roughly a billion dollars in federal taxpayer funds, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America received over half of that billion dollars. Specifically Planned Parenthood Federation of America received $657.1 million dollars over seven years, which averages just under $100 million federal taxpayer dollars each year—and that does not include state and local taxpayer funding. Notably, these funds underwrite abortion promoting organizations, but do not directly pay for abortion due to the Hyde and Helms amendments. However, by providing cash to groups like Planned Parenthood, the federal government enables all of their activities.”
Organizations Covered by the Report
The six selected organizations are listed here along with their funding level over the reporting period. Depending on which numbers were more reliable, either disbursement data or expenditure data is listed.
- Advocates for Youth ($8.7 million over 8 years)
- Guttmacher Institute ($12.7 million over 7 years)
- International Planned Parenthood Federation ($93.8 million over 8 years to affiliates willing to comply with the Mexico City Policy when it was in place)
- Planned Parenthood Federation of America ($657.1 million over 7 years)
- Population Council of the United States ($284.3 million over 7 years)
- Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States ($1.6 million over 8 years)
Does this shock you? Short of raising our hands in despair, what is a Christian to do?
At the risk of repeating myself, I believe that by working together, we can virtually make Roe inconsequential while reducing the opportunities these groups have to promote the abortion message among women. How? By implementing the following modest changes, potentially tens of thousands of lives will be saved each year:
- Institute a Consent/Reflection waiting period at clinics along with standardized counseling information. While variations are already on the books in certain states, it should be in place everywhere. This would allow women to get medically accurate information about the abortion procedure prior to actually going through with it.
- Ultrasound Exams: Require abortion doctors to inform women of the option of seeing an ultrasound prior to the abortion. Statistics suggest tens of thousands of abortion-minded women—upon seeing an image of their baby—decide to keep their child.
- Require Parental Involvement: If parents of minor children must at least be notified before a teen abortion (with judicial bypass for extenuating circumstances), fewer scared teenagers will make this life-changing decision alone.
- Encourage Adoption: Thousands of infertile couples are desperately waiting to adopt an infant in America. By highlighting the benefits of adoption, we’ll help an abortion-minded woman see how her sacrificial act will forever bless a family—and give her child the future she is currently unprepared to provide.
Imagine how great it would be if we did, in fact, make Roe inconsequential during our lifetime. Won’t you join me by working toward that goal?
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