Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is encouraging her colleagues in the House GOP to once again attempt to defund Planned Parenthood, even though in the last election 59% of voters said they were pro-choice and 53% opposed efforts to defund the women’s health organization. But not according to Blackburn, who told Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council yesterday that “the majority of the American people,” and “the majority of American women,” oppose abortion rights and Planned Parenthood funding.
Blackburn claimed that Planned Parenthood “outsources” cancer screenings and birth control services and uses federal money “to subsidize the abortion services,” while Perkins worried that the government was creating a “feeder system for the abortion business” by naming it as a “resource” for women.
Contrary to heir assertions, the government is banned from funding abortion services (which represent just 3% of Planned Parenthood services) and the dollars are not fungible.
Perkins: What they do by giving them this federal money is they set them up as a source, a resource, and it becomes a feeder system for the abortion business that that they have.
Blackburn: Well of course, because as you say money is fungible. The money that is coming in the door that they are saying is there for birth control and cancer screenings and pregnancy planning, all of which they are outsourcing, they still have those dollars. Then they have other dollars that are coming in through abortion or either they are using this money to subsidize the abortion services that they are providing through the mechanism of the fact that those dollars are fungible. You do not have an abortion business and another services business; it is all under one umbrella. People don’t like this, whether they are pro-choice or pro-life, they do not like the fact that you are having taxpayer dollars go for abortion services. The majority of the American people are pro-life, the majority of American women are pro-life and because of that we need to make certain that Planned Parenthood does not get this money and that they are not able to use it to support or stand up or expand their abortion services.
