By Scott Tibbs, October 20, 2010
Last week's Monroe County Council meeting was a debacle, when the councilors voted to give $5,000 to the local Planned Parenthood branch. Charles Newman was absent, Marty Hawk had to leave the meeting early and Julie Thomas recused herself because she is on Planned Parenthood's board of directors. This left Vic Kelson, Jill Lesh, Warren Henegar and Geoff McKim to vote on the funding package. Because only four councilors were voting, all four votes were needed to pass.
Naturally, it passed 4-0.
Even if I supported Planned Parenthood's mission, I could not support their request. After all, Planned Parenthood's most recent fiscal report states that the organization (the national office and all affiliates) took in over one billion dollars in revenue and had an organization-wide profit of $85,000,000. They clearly do not need a $5,000 grant from county government. They got it anyway.
The social services funding committee had about $250,000 in requests for funding, and about $95,000 to distribute. Giving $5,000 to an organization that does not need it and is swimming in cash is a slap in the face to the other organizations. Planned Parenthood has already demonstrated it has no respect for the other organizations, and now Lesh, Henegar, McKim and Kelson have as well. This is an insult to the social service funding process and the taxpayers who expect their money will be distributed in an effective manner.
When Planned Parenthood came to the city asking for a handout, the organization claimed that "it is estimated that 14,930 women between ages of 13 and 44 are in need of publicly-funded contraceptives." This is very interesting, considering the relevant portion of the Indiana Code:
IC 35-42-4-3
Child molesting
Sec. 3. (a) A person who, with a child under fourteen (14) years of age, performs or submits to sexual intercourse or deviate sexual conduct commits child molesting, a Class B felony. |
Source: http://www.in.gov/legislative/ic/2010/title35/ar42/ch4.html
Why would 13 year old girls "need" publicly-funded contraceptives, considering it is a felony for anyone to have sexual relations with a 13 year old? These girls do not "need" contraceptives. What they need is for law enforcement to track down and punish the sexual predators who are abusing them. With this vote, the Monroe County Council has become a criminal organization. They should be ashamed of themselves.
