The Defunding of Planned Parenthood

Each year, approximately $530 million is given to Planned Parenthood by the government. The government’s money comes from taxpayers’ dollars. Citizens do not have a choice. Almost everyone in the United States is helping fund this organization. The question remains, why is this controversial? Planned Parenthood’s history provides an understanding for why its beliefs and ideology completely misalign with correct morals and truth. Because of its outright disregard for the sanctity of life and God’s plan for the humans He created, citizens should know what steps they can take to help defund Planned Parenthood.

The history of Planned Parenthood sheds great light onto the reason its beliefs and ideology is incorrect. On October 16, 1916, the country’s first birth control clinic was opened in Brooklyn, New York, by a nurse named Margaret Sanger. Because birth control education was illegal, police shut down the facility and sentenced Sanger and a couple other women to 30 days in jail. After being released, Margaret Sanger continued traveling the country to advocate for and educate on birth control. Yet, Sanger’s view of the sacred character of human life was extremely twisted and distorted. She strongly supported a set of beliefs called eugenics. Eugenics is “the study of how to arrange reproduction within a human population to increase the occurrence of heritable characteristics regarded as desirable.” (Lexico.com) In short, it is the practice of breeding humans to continue certain intelligent and desirable traits and to prevent passing defects to the next generation. Years later in 1923, Margaret Sanger opened the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in New York. Then the American Birth Control League was founded by
Sanger, and the two organizations combined into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. This founding is the basis for its mission statement: “Help people live full, healthy lives — no matter your income, insurance, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, or immigration status;…Advocate for…reproductive rights and access to a full range of sexual and reproductive health care services, including abortion; Promote research and technology that enhances reproductive health care and access.” (Plannedparenthood.org) While on the surface its mission statement seems inclusive and helpful, Planned Parenthood’s core values and motivations are twisted and harmful.

Planned Parenthood should be defunded because its mission and core beliefs contradict God’s view of the sanctity of life. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (King James Bible) One of every three abortions in the United States is completed by Planned Parenthood, which totaled to 354,871 abortions in the 2018-2019 year. (Planned Parenthood’s 2019-2020 annual report) This enormous number only adds to the total of over 3.3 million abortions that have been shown in Planned Parenthood’s past 10 reports. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an abortion is defined as “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus.” Whether it is the death of an embryo or fetus, that is the death of a human. Murder goes directly against the value of life that each human holds. Not only is Planned Parenthood a leading advocate for abortion, this institution also completely supports the LGBTQ agenda. On its website, under the section of “Sexual Orientation,” Planned Parenthood says this, “Sexual orientation describes how you feel inside, and only you know what it’s like to be you.” Humans are flawed with a depraved sin nature. One’s thoughts and feelings cannot be the structure behind his or her gender identity, marriage, and sexual attraction. “Male
and female created he them.” (King James Bible) God created a man and a woman to join as one. This evidence of Planned Parenthood’s sinful and entirely wrong core belief system proves it should be defunded, and there are multiple ways the average person can advance the defunding of this institution.

Once one knows how Planned Parenthood is being funded, that person is able to personally participate in defunding the organization. According to Planned Parenthood’s 2019-2020 annual financial report, 38% of its revenue comes from “government health services reimbursements and grants.” The government’s large financial support is made of taxpayers’ money. Obviously, United States citizens cannot just stop paying taxes, but there are a couple steps every person can and should take to reduce the governmental funding of this institution. One way to help defund Planned Parenthood is by directly communicating with Congress. The United States of America is a democratic republic. “We the people” shows that America is
directly and constantly influenced by its people. US citizens have the power to talk to Congress through letters, emails, phone calls, and even face-to-face interactions. More people must take advantage of this privilege and make a difference in our Congress. Another privilege people of America have is by electing people to positions of power. If the correct people are elected and placed into our nation’s government, reform will spark. This spark will grow steadily as the morals and spiritual temperature of the people shift, fanning the flame of true and just ideology. When the right people are in power, right decisions are made. If godly American citizens truly want the government funding of Planned Parenthood to be demolished in order to realign our country’s moral compass, speaking the truth boldly to those who can make a difference and electing wise leaders to office is how that reform begins.

Planned Parenthood was never intended to advocate life and what is good and right, instead its fundamental statements show its progressive and wicked motivation behind every life they kill and every immoral action they promote. This organization must be defunded, and although that is an overwhelming imperative, it starts with someone – one person with the passion to protect humans’ rights and godly morals. Planned Parenthood will not stand if combated by Christians who yearn to protect their rights as citizens and humans created in God’s image.

Works Cited

Attia, Abby. “7 Reasons Why Planned Parenthood Should Not Get Government Money.” The
Heritage Foundation, The Heritage Foundation, 2021,
https://www.myheritage.org/news/7-reasons-why-planned-parenthood-should-not-get-go
vernment-money/.

Gale. “Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood, & History of Birth Control.” Gale.com,
https://www.gale.com/primary-sources/womens-studies/collections/planned-parenthood-a
nd-birth-control-history.

Lexico.com, Lexico.com, 2021, https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/eugenics.

Planned Parenthood. “Facts on Planned Parenthood Defunding.” plannedparenthood.org,
Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc, 2017,
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/7a/17/7a172da3-4d51-42cc-80c
5-a5a20b834d7e/common_questions_about_pp_defunding.pdf.

Planned Parenthood. “The History & Impact of Planned Parenthood.” Plannedparenthood.org,
Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc, 2021,
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/our-history.

Planned Parenthood. “What is Planned Parenthood’s Mission Statement?”
Plannedparenthood.org, Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc, 2021,
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/mission.

Planned Parenthood. “2019-2020 Annual Report – PDF – Planned Parenthood.”
Plannedparenthood.org, Planned Parenthood Federation of AmericaInc, 19 February
2021,
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/uploads/filer_public/67/30/67305ea1-8da2-4cee-919
1-19228c1d6f70/210219-annual-report-2019-2020-web-final.pdf.

Submitted by Megan Prigge
3rd place winner of 2021 BFLW Essay Contest (Tie)