Life Links 4/15/11

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia (who signed prolife legislation as West Virginia's governor) is looking for a way to explain his vote against defunding Planned Parenthood. Prolife groups aren't buying it.

Manchin said he offered the so-called “Title X Transparency and Verification Act” as a means of raising public scrutiny of family planning funding and guaranteeing money spent under the program is reported to the public....

In Morgantown, West Virginians for Life’s communications director, Mary Anne Buchanan, said the Manchin proposal wouldn’t do anything.

“The bill that Sen. Manchin wants to put forth really is irrelevant,” she said.

“It’s just a cover. We really feel that he doesn’t want to defund Planned Parenthood. He just put this up as his means of saying, ‘I want to do something to take care of this problem when really it’s not going to help at all.’ Planned Parenthood are the abortion giant in this country. One-third of their revenue comes from abortions. They perform about 27 percent of all the abortions in this country. One out of every eight people who walks into a Planned Parenthood clinic comes out with an abortion.”

At the Weekly Standard, John McCormack notes how taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood helps them subsidize their abortion activities. Take note of Cecile Richards' supposed total hours of work per week.

While pro-choice advocates argue that the law already prohibits Planned Parenthood from paying for abortions with tax dollars, the law actually does nothing to prevent tax dollars from subsidizing abortionists. "Separation of Title X from abortion activities does not require separate grantees or even a separate health facility," according to the regulation issued by the Clinton administration. The regulation allows Title X programs and abortion clinics to even share the same staff.

In addition to underwriting abortion facilities and staff, federal dollars free up funds to pay for Planned Parenthood's political activities and lavish salaries. During the 2004-2005 fiscal year, Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt raked in over $900,000 as the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the tax-exempt "non-profit" organization with a billion dollars in assets. That same year, Feldt earned about $24,000 as the president of Planned Parenthood's political arm, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, an operation that takes in around $10 million per year in order to defeat pro-life Republicans, parental consent laws, and other pro-life measures.

Planned Parenthood's current president Cecile Richards makes about $340,000 per year--double the salary of a U.S. senator--for working 32 hours a week for Planned Parenthood's nonprofit arm, according to the organization's tax forms. She takes in about $37,000 annually for working 40 hours per week for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. So, taxpayers subsidize Planned Parenthood's abortion-performing arm, which in turn subsidizes Planned Parenthood's political operation.

Speaking of how our tax dollars subsidize Planned Parenthood's abortion business, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has announced plans to build 12 new clinics in Iowa and Nebraska over 5 years after getting commitments of $7 million dollars. They will also begin performing abortion in Omaha.


Wesley Smith writes on a proposal in Switzerland to legalize assisted suicide in nursing homes.