Community Corner

Abortion Is Planned Parenthood's Business Model

Cornerstone Action executive director: "Planned Parenthood preys on vulnerable women to drive profits."

By Shannon McGinley

It is impossible to ensure that taxpayer dollars directed to for so-called family-planning services don’t also pay for abortions, and it is for that reason alone that it was appropriate for the to reject the abortion business’s state contract for family-planning services last year.

Under the N.H. Constitution’s protection of the Right of Conscience, it’s unconstitutional and illegal to force taxpayers to fund an organization specializing in these immoral practices, whether pharmaceutical or surgical, which end innocent human life. The Executive Council stood up for women’s health at the same time it rejected Planned Parenthood’s contract by approving 10 family-planning contracts with other organizations that do not perform abortions.

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Because Planned Parenthood does not have a contract with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to perform family-planning services, it does not qualify for a state license to dispense prescription drugs, such as the medical abortion pill RU-486, which can be taken up to nine weeks after conception to end human life. Despite the clear letter of the law spelled out in RSA 318:42 that prohibits it, Planned Parenthood recently applied for a license claiming that the state and federal departments of health and human services are interchangeable. The board decides Wednesday, August 15, and should be held accountable if it doesn’t make the only choice it has, which is to apply the law to Planned Parenthood as it would apply it to any other organization seeking to dispense drugs without a pharmacist.

As a conservative woman of childbearing age, I would be remiss to ignore the leftist assault on women that has played out in the public debate surrounding the Executive Council’s decision. The nation’s top abortion business and its liberal supporters want you to believe that the decision limits women’s access to birth control or contraceptives, or worse, stands in the way of affordable women’s health. But the council’s decision to approve contracts for 10 family planning organizations discredits half of that argument. Secondly, while Planned Parenthood says the pill costs $15-$50 a month, Wal-Mart sells the pill for as little as $9 a month, discrediting the other half. Furthermore, fertility is not a disease that needs to be managed with medical treatment, and we know the exact behavioral cause of pregnancy. With the price of birth control so low, no rational person would involve government in this situation where men and women should bear the full responsibility.

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The disingenuous nature of the liberal attacks on the Executive Council and our pro-life Legislature highlights the most troubling aspect of this whole situation. Is it so important for Planned Parenthood to perform abortions in New Hampshire that the organization is willing to risk its family planning grant and ability to dispense pharmaceuticals? Sadly, based on the recent statements of several women who previously worked at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country and the work of groups such as Live Action and Expose Planned Parenthood—which videotaped Planned Parenthood employees in several facilities showing a willingness to aid and abet apparent pimps by arranging abortions for their under-aged sex slaves—it is increasingly apparent that abortion, both surgical and pharmaceutical, is what sustains Planned Parenthood’s business.

Planned Parenthood preys on vulnerable women to drive profits. The numbers in Planned Parenthood’s own annual report reveals the organization’s focus on abortion and that taxpayers are funding it. During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the organization received $487 million in taxpayer funding, 46 percent of its annual revenue. In the same period, the organization performed 329,445 abortions, 91 percent of its pregnancy services.

Abby Johnson, former clinic director of a Planned Parenthood in Texas, said she was directed to double the number of abortions performed at her clinic to drive up revenue. She also noted Planned Parenthood’s recent directive mandating that all of its affiliates provide abortions by 2013, which led one affiliate, also in Texas, to leave the organization.

Often, this extreme focus to boost profit is at the expense of women’s health. Sue Thayer said she was fired from her Iowa Planned Parenthood position because she expressed a concern about the indignity of so-called “telemed” abortions, which involve a doctor pressing a button from a remote location to open a drawer containing RU-486. The drug is then given to a pregnant woman who is immediately sent home. Thayer said her superiors celebrated the reduction of “overhead costs,” such as the specialized equipment, staff and traveling physician required for a surgical abortion.

Women sent home with these drugs aren’t told about the innocent life inside of them that will starve to death as she goes into labor, has contractions and bleeds out her dead child. Some women even suffer from hemorrhaging and even death after taking this drug. This is the true War on Women.

Shannon McGinley is the acting executive director of .


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