Rudy Giuliani: I Gave Planned Parenthood Donations to Increase Adoptions 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 9, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Rudy Giuliani, the leading Republican candidate for president in 2008, has come under fire for making several donations to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, during the 1990s. The former New York City mayor defended those donations saying he only wanted to promote adoptions.
Giuliani made a lengthy, uncomfortable appearance on Laura Ingraham’s national radio program to give his side of the story.
"Planned Parenthood makes [adoption] information available," Giuliani told Ingraham when she posed that question Tuesday. "It’s consistent with my position."
"I think it’s wrong [but] I think there should be a choice. If there is going to be a choice, there are organizations that are going to give people information about that choice."
"I just as strongly support the idea that a woman should have information about adoption at that time," he added.
However, Planned Parenthood’s own figures show that it rarely refers pregnant women for adoptions and the number of adoptions referrals it does make are on the decline.
In its FY 2004-2005 annual report, the latest available to the public, Planned Parenthood did 255,015 abortions in 2004 (up 4.3% from 2003), generating an estimated $95 million. A scant 1,414 customers were referred to adoption agencies; down more than 20% from 2003.
Giuliani also claimed on the show that adoptions went up 67 percent during his mayoral tenure, but the nonpartisan political watchdog Web site FactCheck said that number is inflated and put the rise at only 17 percent during his terms in office.
Ingraham press Giuliani on the issue — so much that he said he wouldn’t come back to the show for a second interview unless she asked him about other topics.
"I would love to come back, but you’re going to have to ask me about the war on terror and what we do about the economy, which is after all what most citizens ask me about."
"Well, conservatives are citizens, too, Mayor Giuliani!" Ingraham responded. "We’re citizens, too."
Meanwhile, Mike DuHaime, Giuliani’s campaign manager, continued the Giuliani campaign’s effort to deflect the issue as well.
"Most Republican voters are going to judge all these candidates as a whole, not on one issue," he told the Washington Post.
Records show that Giuliani donated money to Planned Parenthood at least six times during the 1990s.
According to Politico, the federal tax returns indicate Giuliani and his former wife Donna Hanover made several personal donations to nation, state and city chapters of Planned Parenthood in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999 totaling $900.
But the donations aren’t the only time that Giuliani has supported the nation’s largest abortion business.
Giuliani in the 1990s also spoke at a Planned Parenthood convention and declared a "Planned Parenthood Day" in New York City. He also issued a proclamation honoring Margaret Sanger, the abortion businesses’ founder.
Other candidates are seizing on the donation story and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo issued a statement saying "if a Republican President of the United States won’t vigorously fight to protect the life of the unborn, how long before the trend toward the culture of death becomes irreversible?"
