Rick Santorum: Cut Federal Funding for Planned Parenthood

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Dec 12, 2011   |   12:08PM   |   Washington, DC

As he campaigned in Iowa on Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has restated his support for cutting off federal taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Santorum made a stop at Tabernacle Baptist Church where he emphasized his pro-life views and talked about his efforts during his time as a Pennsylvania senator in the 1990s when he led the battle to ban partial-birth abortions.

“[The abortion] is an inhumanity that should not occur in this country,” Santorum said, according to the Daily Iowan. “[Tax dollars] should not be used for things that are morally objectionable.”

Although Santorum called for ending tax subsidies to the abortion business, Christina Carberry, the president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance at the University of Iowa, told the newspaper she disagreed.

“I think it’s unfortunate that the Republican candidates choose to focus on choosing a right that women have been given as opposed to talking about other major issues in our country like the economy,” Carberry said. “We need more funding for Planned Parenthood so it can create jobs for people.”

Santorum has repeatedly called for de-funding the Planned Parenthood abortion business and, earlier this year, told the SBA List pro-life group, “If you look at Planned Parenthood; if you look at the abortion industry…they fight every single regulation every single bit of information that should be given to the patient, they all fight it as an affront to the right of abortion.”

In April, Santorum urged Indiana governor Mitch Daniels to sign a bill the state legislature approved de-funding Planned Parenthood.

“I can’t imagine any other organization with its roots as poisonous as the roots of Planned Parenthood getting federal funding of any kind,” Santorum said. “This is an organization that was founded on the eugenics movement, founded on racism — I mean, it’s horrific. It’s origins are horrific. And you can say, ‘well it’s not that anymore.’ It’s not far from where it was in my opinion.”

“They’ve stayed in that same general area of saying that there are certain people in society that we should — you heard Ruth Bader Ginsburg say it in her comments about you know “undesirables” in society,” he said. “I just don’t think that’s what federal government or state government money should be going to.”

“Well, look at — and I know they dispute this — certainly a lot of evidence that the location of their clinics happen to be in places, historically places, where there are high concentrations of minorities for example,” Santorum said of Planned Parenthood.

More recently,  the former Pennsylvania senator launched a new fundraising effort tied to his recent call for not backing down on pressing pro-life themes.

“Beginning December 14, we’ll be kicking off our biggest moneybomb to date. With less than a month to go to the Iowa caucuses, the No Surrender Moneybomb will be dedicated to raising $250,000 so that I have the crucial resources to win the Iowa caucuses,” Santorum said in a new email to his supporters.

Why No Surrender?

“Because a number of Republican leaders have suggested that the best way to win back the White House is to call a truce on talking about social issues. Issues like abortion, marriage, school prayer, and immigration. In my book that’s not a truce…it’s a surrender,” Santorum continued. “But not on my watch. The day we stop fighting for the unborn child, or fighting to protect the sanctity of marriage, expel God from the public square, or decide we will no longer enforce the laws of our land, is the day we surrender all our founding fathers created.”

“I believe what makes America exceptional is not just our economic potential or our remarkable innovation, but the fact that we are a moral enterprise. As President, I will protect America’s moral foundation, empower American families and build America’s economic freedom. And I won’t compromise on my values to do it,” Santorum continued.

The fundraising drive corresponds with newspaper advertisements the Santorum campaign placed in Iowa newspapers with the same “No Surrender” message. Santorum has released print ads in several major Iowa newspapers – including The Des Moines Register – declaring that he will not surrender America on Social Issues.