It’s Time to De-Fund Planned Parenthood

A federal court recently ruled Arkansas could move forward with plans to cut Medicaid funds from abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The state officially severed ties with the abortion giant late last year.

Similar situations are playing out in other states as more and more choose to spend their public dollars elsewhere. So why is the federal government continuing to subsidize Planned Parenthood with our tax dollars?

Eric Metaxas at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview writes,

We have a prolife president. We have a prolife Congress. But as Students for Life of America recently pointed out, despite their pledge to defund Planned Parenthood, “you and I are still being forced to funnel our money to the nation’s largest abortion vendor.”

And despite Planned Parenthood’s oft-repeated claim that it offers “comprehensive health services,” its own just-released annual report reveals what a big, fat lie this is. Their own statistics reveal a steep decline in positive services—such as testing for STDs. In fact, as National Review Online notes, Planned Parenthood’s annual report reveals that the abortion giant “exists to provide abortions and not much else.” As for prenatal services—they’ve “dropped steadily every year since 2009, from over 40,000 that year to just under 8,000 last year.”

Most Arkansans believe abortion ought to be completely illegal or legal only under certain circumstances, and voters have made it clear they don’t want their tax dollars subsidizing abortion.

Metaxas suggests voters encourage their elected officials in Congress to follow through on campaign promises to de-fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. You can read his entire commentary here.