Former President Bill Clinton says he knows what’s best for women and has put out a statement defending taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business, but one pro-life women’s group begs to differ.
“The assault on Planned Parenthood is unjustified. It is penny-wise and pound foolish,” Clinton says.
The pro-abortion Democrat claims the money Planned Parenthood gets will not go towards abortions and that the family planning dollars will help reduce abortions — even though University of Alabama professor Michael New explains how “no analysis of actual abortion data has found that more spending on contraception programs reduces the incidence of abortion.”
Clinton said, “The law strictly and clearly prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion services. The Republicans’ elimination of funding for Planned Parenthood, will in the end cost more than it saves by ending the ability of millions of American women to receive family planning services, breast and cervical cancer screenings and preventative healthcare at cost-efficient Planned Parenthood centers. And the denial of simple birth control and family planning services may well increase both the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in our country.”
But Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser fact-checked Clinton’s comments and found them lacking.
“Clinton believes that taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood means fewer abortions. If that were true, that would mean that the number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood in 2000, the last year of Clinton’s presidency, would be much higher than current levels since taxpayer funding has increased every year since,” she told LifeNews. “From 2000 to 2009, Planned Parenthood saw an 80 percent increase in taxpayer funding, receiving $202 million in 2000 and $363 million in 2009.”
“The truth is, more taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood equals more abortions. In 2000, Planned Parenthood performed 197,070 abortions while making 2,486 adoption referrals. In 2009, they performed 332,278 abortions and made just 977 adoption referrals. That means an 80 percent increase in taxpayer funding resulted in a 69 percent increase in the number of abortions and a 61 percent decrease in the number of adoption referrals,” Dannenfelser added.
“Clinton also claims that ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood will end the ability of women to receive family planning services, cancer screenings, and preventative healthcare,” the pro-life women’s leader continued. “But according to a report by the Chiaroscuro Foundation, poor women and women generally have other options. In addition to the tens of thousands of U.S. doctors and hospitals providing this care, there are 1,048 federally qualified health centers in the U.S. providing care as well. And Planned Parenthood, with nearly a billion dollars in net assets, would still be free to operate on its own dime.”
“Clinton talks a lot about making abortion rare. If he’s serious about doing so, he should back efforts to defund America’s leading abortion provider of taxpayer funding. The numbers are indisputable,” she concluded.
