A major Iowa news outlet complained that more babies may be born in Iowa this year because lawmakers defunded the abortion chain Planned Parenthood.
The Des Moines Register editorial board slammed pro-life Republicans this week, complaining that they created a “contraceptive desert” in Iowa.
“They have made it more difficult for Iowa women to obtain birth control and more likely women will seek abortions and give birth to unwanted children,” the editors argued. “They have helped Iowa become a contraceptive desert.”
In 2017, Planned Parenthood closed three abortion facilities and one abortion referral center in Iowa after state lawmakers cut off taxpayer funding to abortion groups. It still runs eight facilities across the state.
Abortion activists complained that the move would deprive minorities, young adults, low-income families and people in rural areas of essential health care. And the Register editorial board echoed those concerns this week, using limited new data about the effects of the legislation.
In a carefully-worded claim, the newspaper board asserted that 15,000 people lost access to “entities specializing in preventing pregnancy.” In a separate editorial, the board identified those “entities” as the four Planned Parenthoods that closed.
Here’s more from the editorial:
Meanwhile, the state’s family-planning program has had a 50 percent drop in the number of people enrolled since being replaced by the Republican substitute, according to preliminary data recently obtained by The Associated Press.
The information shows 6,897 people were enrolled in Iowa’s new program during its first three months, compared to 13,166 during the same period the previous year. Hundreds fewer health providers are participating.
Officials at DHS emphasized providers still have months to submit claims and cautioned against “drawing conclusions from three months of data.”
The AP also noted that participation in the family planning program has been dropping steadily since 2013, especially after the implementation of Obamacare. This also could be a factor in the drop, but the editors did not mention that.
Money, however, is not the issue. While the state did lose about $3 million from the federal government for family planning because it defunded Planned Parenthood, lawmakers made up the difference by setting aside about $3.3 million state tax dollars to fund family planning programs, the Register previously reported.
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The family planning money now goes to community health clinics that offer comprehensive health care but not abortions. In contrast to the eight Planned Parenthood facilities, there are 221 community health clinics in Iowa, according to local news reports. Lawmakers said these facilities will be able to expand services to low-income, minority and other patients with the funding increase.
Perhaps the mainstream media is setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy by claiming over and over again that Iowans have lost access to family planning resources, while failing to tell them that there actually are hundreds of places across Iowa where women can go for care.
Even if access has dropped, the state was right to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain. The abortion group’s annual reports show patient numbers and non-abortion health care services have been dropping in the past few years while its abortion numbers remain steady.
In December, the U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating whether the abortion chain illegally sold aborted baby body parts.
Finally, it is a sad day when a newspaper laments that more babies may be born into the world because they are not being aborted. The reason why Iowa lawmakers defunded Planned Parenthood is because every unborn baby deserves a right to life, and Planned Parenthood is using our tax dollars to destroy that right.
