Michelle Bachmann: New Congress Should Defund Planned Parenthood

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 7, 2010   |   1:38PM   |   Washington, DC

Rep. Michele Bachmann has become a prominent national conservative figure as an articulate female spokeswoman for issues like abortion and her latest call demonstrates why.

Bachmann says she will press for the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives to pass a bill sponsored by fellow conservative luminary Mike Pence, an Indiana congressman, to de-fund Planned Parenthood when it convenes in January.

“Well, I think one thing that we can do, quite simply, is to withhold funding from Planned Parenthood,” Bachmann said when asked by CNS News about what Congress can do to protect unborn children.

“It wouldn’t mean that Planned Parenthood would go out of existence, because they do have their own independent funding, but what it would mean is that the taxpayer would no longer be funding that,” she said.

Pence is the leading sponsor of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act that would ensure federal funding for family planning does not go to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, even if they supposedly segregate the funds and ensure they do not directly fund abortions.

“Reports show that Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, receives nearly one-third of its $1 billion annual budget from the federal government. And it’s about to get worse, because ObamaCare is hiding even more tax dollars in handouts for abortion providers,” Pence explained in an email last month.

In fact, the last annual report Planned Parenthood put out concerning 2008 figures showed the abortion business totaled nearly a $1 billion budget ($953.1 million) and received $349.6 million in government grants and contracts. That enabled it to do 324,008 abortions in 2008, more than 25 percent of all abortions done in the United States.

Also, a Government Accountability Office report released in May showed Planned Parenthood received $657.1 million in federal taxpayer funding (not including state and local taxpayer funds) over the course of 2002-2008.

Bachmann also talked with CNS News about the latter point — ObamaCare and abortion funding — as a reason Republicans should pursue de-funding ObamaCare as well.

“For the first time in American history under Obamacare–socialized medicine–under President Obama, we have federal funding of abortion,” she said. “President Obama denies that, but we know that it’s already happened in the state of Pennsylvania. And so, therefore, it’s imperative that we in the House completely defund Obamacare so that we no longer force Americans to violate their moral conscience and pay for other people’s abortions.”

Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, is referring to the $160 million the federal government gave the state under ObamaCare to set up a high-risk insurance pool, but the terms of the pool allowed for the money to pay for elective abortions. That was also the case in New Mexico and Maryland until the National Right to Life Committee blew the whistle and both the Obama administration and officials in the three states backed down.

Bachmann also told CNS News that Congress should de-fund the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency that has worked hand-in-hand with the China population control officials who have used forced abortions and other human rights abuses to enforce its one-child policy. It has also promoted abortions in nations with pro-life laws.

“I think it is incumbent upon us as the members of Congress to let people know–not for the purpose of scaring them–but to let people know the stark fiscal realities that we’re facing right now as a nation,” she said. “And can’t we at minimum start with defunding things like Planned Parenthood and paying for other’s people abortions that are highly controversial and are violating our principles of the Declaration of Independence, our inalienable right to life. That we can at least agree on, that we should defund that.”