California Pro-Life Advocates Protest Tax-Funded Abortions to Schwarzenegger
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 1, 2009
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) — The economic situation in California is desperate and pro-life advocates there are keeping up the pressure on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to cut funding for abortions to help the state government. The Survivors, a pro-life youth group based in southern California, led a protest today at his office.
The appeared with signs and banners at the Los Angeles office of the governor and complained about budget cuts of primary services when abortion funding remains untouched.
The Survivors gathered outside Schwarzenegger’s office holding signs with slogans such as, "Fund Police Officers, Not Abortion" and "If You Are Pro-choice, Choose Teachers, Not Abortion."
Operation Rescue president Tory Newman, who is originally from California, joined in the protest and talked with LifeNews.com about it.
"The state of California has forced taxpayers to be the largest funder of abortions in the state, paying for 39% of all abortions done there," he said. "There is no limit placed on the amount of money California taxpayers must pay. If a woman can qualify – and it isn’t that hard to do so – she can get a publicly funded abortion."
Gov. Schwarzenegger has declared an economic emergency in California but continues to refuse to cut abortion funding, Newman said, citing the hypocrisy of the decision.
"It is fiscally irresponsible and morally reprehensible for Gov. Schwarzenegger to cut police, firefighters, and teachers while protecting abortion funding," said Newman. "We urge the public to contact the Governor and ask him to stop bailing out the abortion industry."
The state spends more than $33 million to pay for the abortions of poor women even though main abortion business Planned Parenthood brought in $1 billion in revenue last year.
Every year, pro-life advocates have tried to amend the state budget to remove the funding for as many as 95,000 abortions annually. That’s about 8 percent of the total number of abortions done nationwide — and all paid for at the expense of California taxpayers.
The California Pro-Life Council is also lobbying for a cutoff of taxpayer funded abortions and is sponsoring a new petition to call on state government officials, specifically pro-abortion Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to stop using state money for them.
"California state government is the state’s largest single funder of the abortion industry," the group said in an email to LifeNews.com.
The pro-life organization blames Schwarzenegger for running for governor as a moderate on abortion but never doing anything to stop taxpayer-funded abortions since his election.
ACTION: Contact Governor Schwarzenegger at 916-445-2841, fax 916-558-3160, or email him at https://gov.ca.gov/interact
Related web sites:
California Catholic Conference – https://www.cacatholic.org
California Pro-Life Council – https://www.californiaprolife.org
CPLC petition – https://www.californiaprolife.org/petitions/Budget_09_Petition.pdf
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