Scott Tibbs
Herald-Times, September 26, 2003
Back to Short Writings.
Planned Parenthood does not deserve tax money
To the Editor:Kelly McBride, a Sexuality Educator at Planned Parenthood, assures us in her September 3 letter that “Planned Parenthood is not a money-making organization.” Whatever the financial situation is for the local Planned Parenthood branch, the “income in excess of expenditures” (otherwise known as profit) of PP’s national organization is in the millions of dollars. According to planned Parenthood’s own financial report (http://plannedparenthood.org/about/AnnualReport.pdf) for 2000-2001, the organization generated $672.6 million in revenue and spent $629.0 million That is a profit of $43.6 million.
With such a wealthy national organization, why does the local PP run to city government for funding every year? PP has received grants every year from the Democrat-dominated City Council, including $3,600 in June. The previous four years, the City Council has handed PP $5000, $2000, $1394 and $1495. That is a total of $13,489 of corporate welfare to Planned Parenthood.
The $3,600 given to Planned Parenthood this year is shocking in light of the fact that Shelter, Inc. (http://www.city.bloomington.in.us/council/programs/ssf/2003ssf/finalallocations051903.pdf) requested $20,000 and did not get one penny. Shelter, Inc. closed earlier this summer. While I do not support the Social Services Fund, surely Shelter Inc. needs funding more than Planned Parenthood.
A more basic issue is that Planned Parenthood operates an abortion clinic on South College. The H-T reports that the number of abortions being performed in Bloomington have significantly increased over the last few years. Why should the City Council force thousands of pro-life taxpayers to fund an organization that performs a procedure they find morally abominable?