High Time

In the last ten years taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood has increased by nearly twenty-seven percent. Every single day Planned Parenthood receives nearly $1.7 million from American taxpayers. Today, taxpayer funding makes up 38 percent of Planned Parenthood’s overall revenue. So what? Taxpayer money goes to a lot of different organizations. What difference does it make that Planned Parenthood receives a big chunk of it? It makes a whole world of difference. Planned Parenthood is not the innocent organization that it would like you to believe it is. Planned Parenthood must stop receiving taxpayer dollars because it conducts abortions, administers harmful sexual education programs, and targets ethnic minorities.

First and foremost, Planned Parenthood must be defunded because it conducts abortions. Does there have to be another reason? Despite what it would like people to believe, Planned Parenthood’s main goal is abortion. The numbers make it obvious. In 2018-19 Planned Parenthood performed 354,871 abortions, 9,200 more than the previous year (“Fact Sheet”) and a sickening average of 972 every single day (“The Real Planned Parenthood” 1). Interestingly, the overall number of Planned Parenthood patients remained the same, but the number of abortions increased significantly (“Fact Sheet”). As the number of breast exams, pap tests, cancer screenings, prevention procedures, well-woman exams, and provisions of birth control information and services decreases; the number of abortions increases (Israel). Abortions make up 96 percent of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy resolution services, and for every adoption referral, 133 abortions are committed (“Fact Sheet”). Planned Parenthood would like everyone to believe they are all about helping women, but they are really all about abortions and money.

They are fully aware that abortion is more monetarily profitable than any other service they provide. Americans should not be forced to give up their hard-earned money to a self-seeking organization that only cares about revenues regardless of the destroyed lives and devastated families it leaves in its wake.

Most of the backlash against Planned Parenthood focuses on abortion, and rightly so; however, this organization also conducts very harmful sexual education programs. Monica Cline is a former sex educator trained by Planned Parenthood. She shared her story with the Washington Examiner . When Cline began receiving training from Planned Parenthood, she was quickly disturbed when she found out that the education program did not include encouraging children as young as ten to abstain from sexual activity. Instead it only educated them on how to do it “safely.” Cline shares that in the course she taught, “Sexual intimacy is redefined from being special, for marriage or for having babies, to being crass, seeking pleasure over meaningful relationships, accepting STDs as a way of life, and terminating the lives of babies so we can worship our sexual rights without hindrance.” She also explains that in Planned Parenthood courses, “Parents are purposely left out. Parents are powerful, possessing a natural instinct to protect their children, and Planned Parenthood wants to undermine that. . . . The only good parent to Planned Parenthood is the parent who agrees with their ideology.” Planned Parenthood is encouraging children to live promiscuously so they will continue to need birth control and abortion services (Cline). Programs like government-funded Title X funded these sexual education programs for many years. However, in 2019 Planned Parenthood was forced to withdraw from Title X because Title X providers could no longer refer abortions to their patients. Unfortunately, Planned Parenthood is now working to reenter Title X because this restriction is being taken away (“In Huge Victory”). Taxpayers should not be forced to fund morally corrupt sexual education programs that go against the traditional values that many American taxpayers still embrace.

As if abortions and harmful sexual education programs are not bad enough, Planned Parenthood is also an extremely racist organization that systematically targets racial minorites. In fact, Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood’s founder, said, “We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.” Sanger was a professed eugenist. She believed in using forced sterilization and segregation as a way to purify the human race of those she believed were lesser than the others. She wanted to target first those with mental handicaps and then those in racial minority groups (Conley). Although in recent years Planned Parenthood has come out with statements denouncing some of Sanger’s radical beliefs, their practices have not changed (“ Pro-life Advocates”). A report by the Center for Urban Renewal and Education explains:

The leading consumer of the abortionists’ services is the African-American female. According to the 2011 Abortion Surveillance Report issued by the Center for Disease Control, black women make up 14 percent of the childbearing population, yet obtained 36.2 percent of reported abortions. Black women have the highest abortion ratio in the country, with 474 abortions per 1,000 live births. Percentages at these levels illustrate that more than 19 million black babies have been aborted since 1973.

Beyond this, an astounding seventy-nine percent of Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities are located in minority neigborhoods. A black woman is five times more likely to have an abortion than a white woman. Abortion is the leading cause of death for African Americans (Parker, editor). This is not some freak accident or coincidence; this is attempted genocide on those who are not caucasian. As America flounders in a racial crisis, why should taxpayer dollars be used to fund an organization that is intentionally destroying all those of color? Because of its racist and eugenic practices, Planned Parenthood can no longer be allowed to operate on government funds.

The facts are obvious. Planned Parenthood is actively performing abortions, administering destructive sexual education programs, and working to destroy ethnic minorites. It is high time we put an end to this. Speak out. Email your representatives. Educate others. The organization Planned Parenthood is extremely detrimental to American society. Frankly, Planned Parenthood should not just be defunded; it should be shut down. But, first things first: it must be defunded.

Works Cited

Cline, Monica. “I Was a Sex Educator Trained by Planned Parenthood; Here Is What I Taught
Your Kids.” Washington Examiner , 5 Sept. 2019,
www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/i-was-a-sex-educator-trained-by-plannedparenthood-
here-is-what-i-taught-your-kids. Accessed 15 Nov. 2021.

Conley, John J., S.J. “Margaret Sanger Was a Eugenicist. Why Are We Still Celebrating Her?”
America: The Jesuit Review , 27 Nov. 2017,
www.congress.gov/115/meeting/house/106562/witnesses/HHRG-115-JU10-Wstate-Parke
rS-20171101-SD001.pdf. Accessed 13 Nov. 2021.

“Fact Sheet: Planned Parenthood’s 2019-20 Annual Report.” Charlotte Lozier , 23 Feb. 2021,
lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-planned-parenthoods-2019-20-annual-report/. Accessed 15
Nov. 2021.

“In Huge Victory for Sexual and Reproductive Health Care, Biden-Harris Administration
Announces End to Title X Gag Rule.” Planned Parenthood , 4 Oct. 2021,
www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/in-huge-victory-for-sexu
al-and-reproductive-health-care-biden-harris-administration-announces-end-to-title-x-gag
-rule. Accessed 15 Nov. 2021.

Israel, Melanie. “Planned Parenthood Sets New Record for Abortions in a Single Year.” The
Heritage Foundation , 9 Jan. 2020,
www.heritage.org/life/commentary/planned-parenthood-sets-new-record-abortions-single
-year. Accessed 15 Nov. 2021.

Submitted by Anna Morken
2nd place winner of 2021 BFLW Essay Contest