Planned Parenthood should be defunded

Iowa Right to Life News ^ | 10/30/12 | Jenifer Bowen

[MockTurtle]

The Des Moines Register printed a Letter to the Editor from Iowa Right to Life this morning, that was a response to a very one-sided Associated Press story that ran in the Register a few days ago. Here is the IRTL letter:

Planned Parenthood should be defunded

The Register recently ran a news piece slamming Mitt Romney’s plan to defund Planned Parenthood. ("Why it matters" 10/25/12)

Planned Parenthood should be defunded. Here’s why:

1. Planned Parenthood duplicates services offered by county health. With overhead costs, this is an inefficient use of taxpayer funds.

2. Planned Parenthood pressures Title 19 low-income women to donate for services and charges for pregnancy tests and other services that can be obtained at other clinics for free.

3. Planned Parenthood's billing is questionable. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which also manages Iowa, was recently dropped from an Oklahoma State Department of Health program because of Planned Parenthood's "high cost per participant, along with faulty billing practices."

Here in Iowa, Planned Parenthood still faces a $28 million dollar Medicaid fraud lawsuit by a former Planned Parenthood manager. Among the allegations: Planned Parenthood purchased birth control packets for $2.98, then billed Medicaid $35 for the same packets.

4. Planned Parenthood has a history of dishonesty. Earlier this year, the Register quoted spokesperson Shelby Cloke saying that Planned Parenthood received $8,000 from the Quad Cities Komen organization for services including "low- or no-cost mammograms." Planned Parenthood does not have, nor has ever provided mammograms, here in Iowa or anywhere in the U.S. President Obama repeated this falsehood in the Presidential debates.

Planned Parenthood's "abortion prevention" claim is a sham. Here in Iowa, Planned Parenthood has expanded abortion locations from 7 to 16 in the past four years and now aborts an average of 13 Iowans a day.

5. Planned Parenthood is biased, spending millions to defeat mostly Republicans. According to OpenSecrets.org, Planned Parenthood spent $45,000 in 2012 in Iowa alone against one Republican candidate.

Mitt Romney is right to demand the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Jenifer Bowen, executive director, Iowa Right to Life, Des Moines

[MockTurtle]

What is going on at the Des Moines Register? They endorsed Romney, then printed this letter actually slamming Planned Parenthood. The Register does not allow reprinting on FR, but IRTL ran the article on their site.

[Arm_Bears]

I object to the government using my tax dollars to murder babies.

If that makes me racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, etc., so be it.

[Bitsy]

If that makes me racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, etc., so be it.

Me too. It is an abomination to use my tax dollars to kill the innocents. Defund and scatter planned parenthood. It is just a killing machine.

[Tzimisce]

It should be defunded.

But it won’t be.