It’s time to cut the cord with Planned Parenthood

Our government should not be pouring U.S. tax dollars into Planned Parenthood, which is not only self-sustaining, but taxpayers are paying for services that are also provided by the government under the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) received over a half a billion dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds in 2014. The U.S. government has been funding PPFA for the last 35 years.

Funds come to them under the guise of a reimbursement from Medicare/Medicaid because it’s illegal for the federal government to outwardly finance abortions. Of note: abortions account for only 3 percent of what’s provided through PPFA.

According to their financial statement, found on Planned Parenthood.org, the yearly income for 2013 to 2014 totals over $1 billion. They also receive annual donations from other sources. They received $305.3 million from non-government services, $391.8 million from private donors, $77.9 million for other operating revenues and $16.8 from affiliate locations.

Only 65 percent of their budget is spent on actual medical services. Under medical services, you’ll find that 42 percent of that is going to sexually transmitted infections and diseases (which includes HIV testing and most anyone can get a test for free); 34 percent for contraception (the largest percent of that is for birth control pills); 11 percent for “other” women’s health services; 9 percent for cancer screening, only 3 percent for abortions, and 1 percent for other non-named services.

PPFA does not perform any cancer screening tests such as mammograms; the women are referred out to a different source. And they don’t take personal checks in any of their clinics. Meaning it’s mostly cash since their clientele will not have a charge card or might elect not to use it. This is a nonprofit organization so there are no taxes to pay, meaning the government gets nothing back.

Only 65 percent of what they do is considered medical services, which can now be provided by your local health care physician. So why is the government still subsidizing this operation?

PPFA reports spending $145.9 million in management and general services (non-medical), another $103 million for public relation topics like Engage Communities, Increase Access, Renew Leadership and Refresh Our Brand. Do they have so much money they can’t spend it all?

It’s very enlightening to read the Planned Parenthood financial statement. When looking closely in the fine print about the millions donated from private contributions, amongst those are donations received from foundations, such as workplace giving campaigns and corporations.

Have you ever heard of the ‘workplace giving campaign’? According to this financial statement, it is made of “contributions through payroll deduction plans for employees of federal and state governments and participating corporations.”

The financial statement says there are 584,000 active individual contributors. So not only do they have an automatic deduction from their (government) paycheck, but some of their tax dollars are also going to PPFA. This cannot be confirmed as PPFA’s workplace campaign is not found on the internet and in their annual report it’s generalized as a contribution.

This is not a political approach to defunding PPFA, but a common sense approach to how the government inappropriately allocates tax dollars. PPFA lobbied to be funded to provide medical services that were not easily found in 1970 – they were “birth control clinics.”

Health care has always been a personal choice and today having insurance is mandated by the government so that each and every person has health coverage. The purpose of this act was to provide services to low-income and uninsured individuals.

The original reasons for funding this program no longer apply. This nonprofit organization has become a drain to taxpayers. And when the government continues to subsidize the same services that are mandated to the people, it starts to look and feel like fraud.

The budget deficit will not fix itself, and while the current President and the First Lady spend millions in tax dollars for vacations (meanwhile the government has to borrow money from China to pay PPFA), you then have to ask yourself if the one person in charge of the government has the best interest of the people at heart.