Florida County Yanks $500K for Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 8, 2011   |   1:56PM   |   Port St. Lucie, FL

A Florida county has voted to revoke $500,000 in taxpayer funding to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. After significant pro-life lobbying, the Children’s Services Council Taxing Authority (CSC) stopped funding Planned Parenthood after sending the abortion giant millions of dollars over the years.

“America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood (PP) was axed Thursday by yet another tax funded agency,” said Bryan Longworth, who has been helping to lead the charge.  “The latest government entity to ditch the embattled abortion giant was the St. Lucie County Children’s Services Council (CSC), an independent taxing authority in Florida, which has funded Planned Parenthood with grants totaling nearly $4 million since 2002.”

“Planned Parenthood proved to be too controversial of an organization to continue funding and has needlessly tarnished the good name of the Children’s Services Council. I support most of the organizations funded by the Children’s Services Counsel and rejoice to see the CSC free to carry out it’s mission without the baggage that comes with funding Planned Parenthood,” he added.

Members of the council directed the Planned Parenthood funding to other agencies, and voted unanimously for $220,000 to Kids Connected by Design for its Healthy Decision Making Program and $188,550 to the St. Lucie County Boys and Girls Club for its after school/summer programs, according to WPTV.

Cory Neering, the vice president of education for Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast, told the television station he wasn’t sure whether Planned Parenthood would be able to keep open the same hours as it is currently.

The Florida based CSC joined the ranks of Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin — states which all took actions to cut or eliminate taxpayer funding to the Planned Parenthood abortion business earlier this year.

When the council met, Longworth says approximately 90 taxpayers opposed to the funding attended the morning discussion while only one Planned Parenthood employee addressed the council.

Dr. Michael Hofstee, an organizer from the St. Lucie Taxpayers Against Planned Parenthood Funding, said the CSC Taxing Authority members, who are appointed, not elected, “saw the writing on the wall after PP found itself embroiled in a slew of embarrassing and indefensible undercover sting operations.”  Hofstee cited videos and recordings demonstrating that Planned Parenthood assisted teenage girls in subverting parental notification laws, covering up statutory rape, accepting donations specifically to abort black babies, and covering up child sex trafficking.

“The CSC saw the incontrovertible evidence that PP is despicable,” Hofstee said.

Longworth thanked many of the national pro-life groups that have been active in exposing Planned Parenthood, including “Lila Rose, Live Action, Life Dynamics International, and the other individuals and organizations who have exposed Planned Parenthood’s embarrassing practices.”

Protests have worked before as Hofstee says similar programs in Martin County were discontinued after taxpayer watchdogs showed red-faced council members that funded programs could not be substantiated or were already duplicated by other government agencies.

“This year, Planned Parenthood has come under increasing scrutiny from taxpayers across the country as they have been widely implicated for assisting teenage girls in subverting parental notification laws, covering up statutory rape, accepting donations specifically to abort black babies and covering up child sex trafficking,” he said.