By Rita Diller and Johanna Dasteel
As Planned Parenthood continues its campaign of lies to ensure its funding and its survival, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had the audacity to say last week that there will be no defunding of the abortion giant in the bill to continue funding of the government this fiscal year.
With pressure building to make the current three-week budget extension the last before a final government-funding solution is reached for the fiscal year, Reid would rather see a government shutdown than sacrifice the Planned Parenthood sacred cow. Reid, who has always claimed to be pro-life, is the epitome of hypocrisy in his veneration and defense of the nation’s largest abortion chain.
His claim that women will be without the health services they need if Planned Parenthood is defunded is as hollow as a man without a soul. As majority leader of the Senate, he must know better than anyone the following:
1. While Planned Parenthood operates 785 facilities, there are over 7,000 federally funded health centers ready to absorb Planned Parenthood’s health care clientele, without adding abortion to the mix.
2. Health care is not Planned Parenthood’s focus. Abortion accounts for 97 percent of its “services” to pregnant women. An estimated 40.6 percent of its clinic income is from abortion.
3. Planned Parenthood formed a Coalition of Abortion Providers, whose goal is to make every Planned Parenthood affiliate a seller of abortions.
Reid’s line in the sand is proof positive that your voices are being heard! On the most recent temporary budget bill, fifty-four U.S. Representatives stood courageously with Rep. Mike Pence. Lining up opposite of Reid, they said defunding of Planned Parenthood is not negotiable!
DON’T GO WOBBLY ON CUTTING FUNDS TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Even with such strong and convincing voices in Congress, however, other members in key House leadership positions have not answered Sen. Harry Reid by driving their own stakes in the ground.
We must hear from Speaker Boehner and other leaders in the House that they will not accept any bill that continues to fund Planned Parenthood.
If Sen. Reid is willing to say that protecting Planned Parenthood’s funding is worth a government shutdown, we need to know that defunding corrupt and scandal-ridden Planned Parenthood is just such a priority for the House.
Those key members need to hear you repeat the famous words that Margaret Thatcher spoke to President George W. Bush in a time of war: “This is no time to go wobbly.”
IF NOT NOW, WHEN?
A perfect storm is brewing and America cannot afford to miss this historic opportunity. Fiscal conservatives are joining social conservatives in the fight against continued taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.
We have joined together to expose fraud, to question the nearly $1.5 billion missing in taxpayer funds, to expose violations of mandatory reporting laws on child rape, and to expose repeated willingness to not report child sex traffickers at Planned Parenthood locations across the nation.
All the while, Planned Parenthood is using its $1.2 billion in revenues to pay exorbitant executive salaries and elect more politicians to advance its abortion and radical sex education policies.
AMERICA HAS CRUSHING DEBT while Congress continues to fund Planned Parenthood.
Again, “This is no time to go wobbly.”
A CALL TO ACTION
Now is the time to rattle the walls of Congress as we never have before. If the Congressmen hear the constant clang of our voices insisting that Planned Parenthood be defunded, many more will join Indiana Rep. Mike Pence and the pro-life majority in the House to proclaim that the evil abortion giant must not be funded with taxpayer dollars.
PLEASE ACT TODAY: Follow this link to find the phone number and talking points you need to tell your Representative, Senators and House leadership that defunding Planned Parenthood, above all else, should be their number one non-negotiable priority.
Johanna Dasteel is ALL’s Senior Congressional Liaison and directs the organization’s Personhood Project, an educational and advocacy effort to define the term person in state and federal constitutions to include every human being. For the past three years she has headed up ALL’s presence on Capitol Hill and has educated members of Congress on how to advance the rights and personhood of the preborn and the need to defund Planned Parenthood. She also manages ALL’s efforts with state personhood initiatives, personhood educational efforts, and state and federal legislative analysis.
Rita Diller is the national director of American Life League’s Stop Planned Parenthood International (STOPP) project. Rita is responsible for leading American Life League’s effort against Planned Parenthood in the United States. She is the managing editor of the Wednesday STOPP Report and is responsible for overseeing research on Planned Parenthood and supplying detailed information about PP to pro-lifers all across the country.