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Columns

Planned Parenthood Must Be Defunded

July 13, 2016 - 11:30am

A year ago,‭ ‬the nation was shocked by the release of a video that showed a senior Planned Parenthood official discussing in graphic detail how her organization sold the body parts of aborted babies.‭ ‬It was a chilling look into the callous disregard for human life that epitomizes Planned Parenthood’s culture,‭ ‬and why this organization should never get another dime of taxpayer money.

Yet,‭ ‬Planned Parenthood still receives more than a half a billion dollars of taxpayer money,‭ ‬with the federal government being its largest source of government funding.‭ ‬Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in America,‭ ‬and taxpayers simply should not be asked to subsidize its continued assault on innocent human life.
 
As a man of a faith with deeply held pro-life convictions,‭ ‬I am outraged by the actions of Planned Parenthood and am committed to zeroing out its funding should I have the honor of serving Southwest Florida in Congress.‭ ‬While liberal politicians like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to defend the indefensible on the basis that Planned Parenthood provides other health care services to women,‭ ‬there is no acceptable justification for continuing to fund an organization that is hostile to the values of millions of taxpayers. There are countless community-based and qualified health centers throughout the country who provide services for women,‭ ‬but do not provide abortions.‭ ‬We could steer the money that goes to Planned Parenthood to these organizations,‭ ‬improving the delivery of health care to women and avoiding sending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to an organization that provides abortions.
 
Let me be clear:‭ ‬This is not an issue I will pay lip service to and then ignore in Congress.‭ ‬My commitment to the pro-life cause is unequivocal.‭ ‬As a former Ambassador to the Vatican,‭ ‬I worked closely with the Holy See to promote a culture of life.‭ ‬I believe with all my heart that we are ultimately measured by how we treat the most vulnerable in our society.‭ ‬We have a moral duty to stand strong in defense of life from conception to natural death.‭ ‬In addition to fighting to defund Planned Parenthood,‭ ‬I will work to ban painful,‭ ‬late-term abortions that occur after twenty weeks of pregnancy.‭ ‬These are babies who can live outside the mother’s womb,‭ ‬and we must push back against Hillary Clinton and the national abortion lobby to ban late term abortions,‭ ‬once and for all.
 
I am also committed to ensuring that women facing difficult pregnancies are provided with the support and information they need to make the right choice to deliver their babies.‭ ‬I know that many women encounter gut-wrenching decisions.‭ ‬That’s why I will support more funding for crisis pregnancy centers to help mothers in need.‭ ‬I am also committed to making it easier for families to adopt children.‭ ‬Together,‭ ‬these steps can greatly reduce the incidence of abortion in America.
 
It has been one year since America got a look deep inside the mindset and values of Planned Parenthood.‭ ‬We must not forget what this organization is really about. Their heinous acts,‭ ‬particularly the harvesting of human tissue and its sale for profit cannot be set aside.
 
Conservatives across America must be firm and resolute in our commitment to defunding this organization.‭ ‬There are approximately one million abortions performed in America each year.‭ ‬Planned Parenthood is an organization that foments the culture that is responsible for this moral failure in our society.‭ ‬In Congress,‭ ‬I will draw a line in the sand and fight on principle until Planned Parenthood is denied access to your tax money and late term abortions are banned in our country.

Republican Francis Rooney,‭ ‬CEO of Rooney Holdings,‭ ‬a Naples-based investment and holding company,‭ ‬is running for the United States House of Representatives‭ ‬19th Congressional District.

Comments

Could someone tell us ignorant folks which part of the constitution authorizes the federal government to give tax money to Planned Parenthood? Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood has the effect of facilitating abortions because it frees clinics to use other funds for abortions. It’s like people on welfare going on vacation in Las Vegas but not using government money. Get it? If the mother is in good physical health and the baby is in good physical health exactly whose health are we concerned about when performing an abortion? If we actually don’t give a shit about the health of anyone; can the father elect to keep the baby, and abort the mother and sell her body parts? The way to fix the abortion issue is to prevent the need or desire for an abortion I.e. preventing unintended pregnancies U.S. government expenditures on births, abortions and miscarriages resulting from unintended pregnancies nationwide totaled $21 billion in 2010. In 19 states, public expenditures related to unintended pregnancies exceeded $400 million in 2010. Texas spent the most ($2.9 billion), followed by California ($1.8 billion), New York ($1.5 billion) and Florida ($1.3 billion); https://www.guttmacher.org/report/public-costs-unintended-pregnancies-and-role-public-insurance-programs-paying-pregnancy

This is exactly why Planned Parenthood needs to be supported and expanded....they help PREVENT unwanted pregnancies (i.e. unplanned pregnancies), thus preventing abortions. This is done through education, examinations, birth control and contraceptives made available to thousands of women who would otherwise NOT have access to this resource. Colorado has had free birth control available for five years now and their abortion rate dropped by nearly HALF. Pregnancy prevention works, and is the BEST way to reduce the need for abortions.

Mr. Rooney is shamelessly pandering for the votes/support of the religious right. I doubt he seriously gives a rat's patootie whether PP is defunded- that's merely his talking point du jour. He and his Rethug confederates would be truly offended if , by some circumstance, abortion and PP were rendered even more unavailable despite their attempts to do just that. Rooney knows well his entire rant is predicated upon a lie; the aforementioned videos have been debunked and the makers have been criminally indicted for their deceptive and illegal actions. Rooney et al would serve the public better by actually trying to accomplish something of benefit to all Floridians. The gawd-awful toxic atrocity in the everglades comes to mind-for starters. wonder if HE is another lucky recipient of big $$ bribes from Big Sugar... This entire column is a puerile attempt to garner campaign $$ from the right-wing fascists. His-and a few other commenters'-ignorance is appalling. Would that more would actually avail themselves of facts prior to posting such drivel. The SSN is a conservative site-allowing such patently false information to be disseminated is journalistic prostitution and shameful even for them.

Issues will become much more divisive, difficult, and dangerous than "Planned Parenthood" if these right wing religious extremists continue to polarize what remains of our country.

Believe it is the first time I ever agreed with William Greene. I maintain that it should not be a political issue. I thought the Republicans wanted the damn government out of our lives? But not a womans life? I say again to the narrow minded holier than thou assholes who insist they know best for a woman - most of them fat, rich men that bought themselves a seat at the table - you think a woman gets up one morning and says to herself, "Self, have a free half day, might as well run down to the clinic and get an abortion". Really? You think a woman does this on a whim? I don't have the stats so this is a guess -but I suspect black women have a whole pile more babies than white women. But then, and again- I suspect- that white women are more likely to pay for them instead of getting paid for them. I know, I know, I can hear it now, I am a racist. Oh, well. It further infuriates me that the Republicans are the ones in charge of this mess. You think maybe another ten million women might vote Republican if this was not the party platform? I wish Francis Rooney seemed as concerned about priests molesting small boys as he is about abortion. Well, I suppose little boys don't get pregnant. Just screwed.

you ignorant folks don't seem to understand that Planned Parenthood does not use tax dollars for abortion services - that was outlawed years ago. AND - the number of abortions performed is miniscule when compared to the other women's health issues that Planned Parenthood provides. And, unlike the idiots in the Fla. Legislature think, you can't just go to any doctor for women's health services and you certainly can't get those services at the dental clinic or school clinics they listed in their PR - FACTS, FOLKS, FACTS. And - the stupid video has been proved over and over and over to be fake and doctored. You all are so gullible.

I don't care if women have abortions... I don't care how or where they get an abortion... I just don't want them using tax money to pay for an abortion. I am a little surprised there are so many women who don't know how they are getting pregnant. Apparently pro-abortionist are correct when calling this a MENTAL health issue.

The tone of the article as well as this response are appalling and ignorant! So, you all would rather have most woman be required to self-abort if they cannot afford to end a pregnancy? This "solution" was a common factor for the increased mortality rate among young women before Roe v Wade became law of the land. Self-righteous misogynists are the only people who would allow unwanted babies to be born into this very complex world but then avoid the responsibility to raise these children into adulthood. Parenting should be THE MOST CAREFULLY-MADE DECISION ANYONE MAKES in their life. Getting pregnant by mistake is no justification to force a woman into parenthood. Especially true because so many males (like you and the author of this article) abnegate their parental responsibilities without much thought. IF you all DO care so much about this issue (which I seriously doubt), you would already be volunteering to ease the burden of our overwhelmed foster care system that your republican party keeps defunding. When was the last time you all felt passionate about ANY of these children already born into a less than adequate life? Yet, you and your ilk will fight to the death to maintain your Constitutional "rights" to kill people already born. Does this seem even a little bit hypocritical??? Guess not...

Didn't the producer of that film go to jail for fraud?......... But I notice those so called right to lifers will after the baby is born disappear. They all should be required to take in unwanted babies in order they come or they need to leave women to make their own family decisions. .......They need to help with birth control, etc to prevent abortions yet they oppose it. PP stops far more abortions than the RTL crowd ever will by helping with family planning so they don't get pregnant until they are ready for a child. So if they want to really cut abortions, they need to double P P funding, not cut it if they really mean it.

There can't be anything more protected than ones freedom to do with his or her body as we choose. No one should tell a woman what she should or shouldn't do with her body. Get out of the decision!!!

Your non-right to murder rests on the opinions of a few black-robed lawyers. It isn't even a law. The first right of all is the right to life itself. This American version of Gulags, Killing Fields, and Concentration Camps, in which 55 millions have perished, is what happens when man sets himself above God and ignores His Natural Law.

All human life MATTER. a woman has in her an extremely Vulnerable human life NOT SOME OTHER SPECIES

If birth control is used, there is no need for abortions. Get with the program, sweetheart. I'm a lifelong Republican, but this Far Right candidate doesn't get it. It's why many of us are turning into Libertarians. If the GOP wants to win more elections, they need to get out of everybody's bedroom.

a video that showed a discussion...long since debunked.

Forget 'investing' with Rooney Holdings in Naples, and let's NOT elect this blind MAN to office.

I couldn't disagree more. My very old fashioned and generally conservative mother could not abide the idea that men thought they knew what women should and should not do with their bodies. She is long since gone but I too find it infuriating that Mr. Rooney takes it upon himself to try to dictate what is best for women and their most intimate health care issues. It is even more frustrating that he should opine on an organization that is for many women their only source for this type of medical care. I can't imagine most women would find it appropriate to intrude on the intimate health care issues of men. Heaven forbid!

I agree. Frank Rooney is way out of line!

Only 3% of Planned Parenthood's budget goes for abortions, and NO federal funding goes for abortions. The reason the organization is called PLANNED Parenthood is to assist in avoiding UNPLANNED pregnancies, through education, birth control, examinations and contraceptives. MANY thousands of unplanned pregnancies and abortions are avoided due to the good work Planned Parenthood does. Colorado has been having birth control readily available for several years now, and the number of abortions in Colorado has dropped by nearly half in that time. Birth Control is the best way to prevent abortions!! To un-fund Planned Parenthood only creates more unwanted pregnancies and MORE abortions. Oh, and the video of the "sold baby parts" has been debunked over and over as a setup, and totally incorrect. NO baby parts have been sold!! More right wing bogus propaganda. If we truly believed in "right to life" and the sanctity of a child's life, then there would also be ample funding for children to have adequate food, health care and housing. 30% of the children in the USA today live in poverty!! This in unconscionable.

Excellant script RL! Frank Rooney is certainly blinded by facts from women, who are the ones here having their particular situation decided by an old and ignorant of facts, man! While he's been told many times to "GO F*** Yourself, Frank" it's obvious he hasn't faced the pregnancy dilemmas so many women face today!.

Planned Parenthood abortions should not be used in place of birth control. Abortions are 94% of what Planned Parenthood does. PP has killed 7 million babies since Roe vs. Wade. I believe they should only be performed for rape, incest or saving the life of the Mother.

I believe abortions account for 3% of the PP budget. The wronger a person is, the more adamant they become.

Another attack on women's freedom.

With THOSE kinds of ideas,.. Rooney could "crush" Curt Clawson (who did NOT vote to CUT funding to "Sanctuary Cities"). [Bet you're looking for a new job come January 2017 Curt; Never had much to show for your two terms anyway...! ]

If there is a medical reason a woman needs an abortion.. she can get a hospital to do it.. not a clinic in an ally

Can you say 'Closed minded'?

Comments are now closed.

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