Planned Parenthood Private Funding Down: Government Funding Up

David Limbaugh reports that Planned Parenthood's private funding has seen steady decreases recently. But they are still turning a profit on abortions and other services and their government funding is "taking up the slack."

Time to fight this issue in the states.

Minnesota legislators put forward a "Taxpayer Protection Act" in their last legislative session which would have restricted government money from being directed toward organizations which refer women to abortion providers. In Minnesota, a judicial opinion restricts funds from going directly to abortion providers, but this is not the case in every state.

Other states in which tax dollars are given to abortion providers are CA, NH, VA, IN, and others.

The good news is that when states add restrictions like parental consent laws, abortion rates decrease noticeably. Reductions in funding are a necessary next step in state policy initiatives.
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UPDATE: Thanks La Shawn Barber for linking your post on the moral and spiritual foundation for preserving innocent life in the womb. I link you proudly from this site.

This post caused a big stir in the Rocky Top Brigade; of which I am a member. Those comments can be clearly seen if you follow the "comments" hyperlink below.

CE Petro, a fellow RTB member, has posted this response to my arguments. Because my response to her could not be fully posted in the comments section there, I offer them below.

You have given us all an interesting discussion on the matter of a woman's choice to pursue abortion. There's just one item you have neglected to address . . . . It's the question of whether a "fetus" is a human life. What of its rights and choices.

That is the nexus of the irreconcilable nature of the pro-choice/pro-life debate. We who believe a baby is a life beginning at conception will never concede that point. Those who believe the woman has a choice to terminate the pregnancy until birth will not easily change their beliefs either.

Notwithstanding the speciousness of your theory of the origin of abortion restrictions in this country, you do make some valid points about the difficult decisions women must take in their child-bearing years. But in my mind and the majority of others in this country, those difficulties do not begin to compare with the neglected rights of a child which cannot answer for his or her self: a child created by God and in His image.

It's one of the great paradoxes of life: the joy of childbirth can only be had through great pain and suffering. Thus childbirth becomes a parable of life as well.

Life is a question not merely of the means toward ends but of the sacrifices one must make to survive and obtain the blessings which alone bring joy. Nothing is free. Our own freedoms in this country have come only through blood and travail. But that is the price of life.

Having two sons, I know the sacrifice I must make by subordinating many choices I could have otherwise made to provide nuture and care for their physical and spiritual well-being. But the extra effort necessary to do so and the frustration it sometimes causes is but dust compared to the great joy I receive in my heart every day I have the privilege to watch them grow to "honorable manhood around [me]."

Tennyson said, "Life is not idle ore/but iron dug from central gloom . . ./and battered by the shocks of doom,/to shape and use." Though we pro-lifers recognize the challenges of a woman in the midst of a crisis pregnancy, we cannot reconcile easing that trial by the taking the life of another.

It's a choice we just cannot make.

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UPDATE II: More comments and replies from the CE Petro post:

From mataliandy:

"At what point do the rights of a being that has no ability to recognize and participate in life on its own supercede those of a being who is a full participant in life, contributing to the good of its friends, family, and community?"

My response:

You have proposed a "value of life" issue I believe is disingenuous at best and at worst mere hubris.

The divine origin of life theory presupposes value upon all born (or unborn) into this world. And here is the rub: it's tough for those who cannot countenance this belief, like yourself, to comprehend the seriousness of this issue to those of us who do.