Dear Editor,
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan recently stated that the Republican Congress will follow through on one of its campaign promises, i.e., the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood has gotten billions of dollars from local, state, and federal governments. It’s bad enougb that Planned Parenthood kills hundreds of thousands ofbabies a year and pockets the cash from it. But that they have the taxpayers kick in a half a billion dollars every year to help fund their operation is disgusting. Forty-three percent of their annual $1.3 billion budget from our pockets! And, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, received a whopping $957,952 annual salary in fiscal year 2014.
There seems to be some discussion about the possibility that Planned Parenthood does “a lot of good for women.” That couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are the facts.
First, Planned Parenthood performs abortions. Lots of them. In its last corporate report, Planned Parenthood took credit for perfonning 323,999 abortions. The year before it was 327.633. The year before that 333,964. The year before that .... well, you get the picture. Planned Parenthood is easily the country’s biggest abortion chain, responsible for about a third of all abortions performed in the U.S. every year. In the last 25 years, they’ve killed more than five and a half million babies.
Planned Parenthood makes millions from their abortion business. And, as the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood exposed, they make additional profit from the sale of baby body parts. If you look at services that could only be provided to pregnant women at Planned Parenthood, abortions outnumbered adoption referrals 174 to 1.
It’s about time Planned Parenthood no longer receives taxpayer funding.
David Gittrich, State Development Director
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Kansans For Life