All I Want for Christmas Is Planned Parenthood Defunded

’Tis the season for reflection and shopping, as nationwide many of us think about the people who give our lives meaning and consider how we want to express our affection. And with all due respect to the man in the red suit, central to this time of year is the story of a woman, a baby, taxes and a lack of options. 

At Christmas we remember a poor family, struggling to welcome a baby with infinite potential to bring joy to the world, making a trip to answer a summons to pay the government what it thought it was due. That brings us, ironically enough, to Planned Parenthood, which makes a good living convincing women not to embrace the life in their wombs -- too often at taxpayers’ expense. 

With a December 21 stopgap funding bill coming up and a new Congress preparing to come to town while broadcasting their gift list to constituents, now is the perfect time to ask why anyone wants to push the hopeless mission of Planned Parenthood with more than half a billion in hard earned taxpayer dollars. Services that Planned Parenthood has long touted as the reason it should get such a huge chunk of taxpayer funding are perpetually declining. Over the last 10 years of the abortion chain’s own annual reporting, things like Pap tests, manual breast exams, and even contraception have declined precipitously while abortions have increased by 11 percent to more 320,000 each year.

Defunding Planned Parenthood and redirecting those funds to programs that help strained families is not only a moral imperative, it is possible and also the best way to help those in need. 

When I and other pro-life leaders met recently with White House officials to discuss the continued emphasis on defunding Planned Parenthood by Americans nationwide, we talked about five specific ways in which Planned Parenthood gets funds both to support its business model and to market its deadly product. This week, we’re in meetings with members of Congress to share the same message. Even in a divided Congress, these are ways to address the constant stream of taxpayer resources to the nation’s number one abortion vendor.