Misfeasance

Planned Parenthood has held onto its federal funding so far, but nine states-Indiana, Texas, Kansas, New Jersey, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee, and Wisconsin-have defunded the leading abortion provider from state budgets or may soon do so.

This month Americans United for Life (AUL) added to the pressure by publishing solid research into two decades of Planned Parenthood records and law enforcement reports. The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood details misuse of federal healthcare and family planning funds, failures to report criminal child sexual abuse and to comply with parental involvement laws, and dangerous misuse of the abortion drug RU-486.

The report (available online) highlights the group's willingness to provide women with inaccurate and misleading information and to refer them to substandard clinics. It relies heavily on statistics but also reports individual incidents like that of the 39-year-old who impregnated his 13-year-old stepdaughter and brought her to Planned Parenthood, the 21-year-old who impregnated his 14-year-old girlfriend three times and each time brought her in, the 41-year-old who impregnated a 15-year-old runaway and regularly locked her in a storage space, and so on: Each time Planned Parenthood performed the abortion.

Despite such misfeasance, Planned Parenthood still receives more than $363 million in taxpayer funding each year. Abortion-providing organizations have preserved their subsidies from government not because of political popularity-polls show more than 70 percent of taxpayers don't want their tax dollars to subsidize abortion-but through lobbying and strategic contributions. According to the Federal Election Commission, pro-abortion groups since 2000 have spent more than $205 million dollars in campaign contributions or independent expenditures on behalf of candidates for federal office. Those donations will buy the support of some politicians, and ideology will do the same for others, but increasing pro-life sentiment plus budget stringency plus AUL's research is likely to defund Planned Parenthood in more states.