Who says Libertarians and Social Conservatives cannot find common ground?
I had the pleasure of speaking this morning with Greg from Louisville. Greg was a caller to Bill Bennett’s Morning in America program. I was being interviewed by my dear friend, guest host Seth Leibsohn (listen to the full audio from the program).
I pointed out that the main federal family planning program—Title X—costs us billions. The money does not go directly to fund Planned Parenthood’s killing machine. But it does indirectly fund an outfit that kills 350,000 unborn children every year. That’s nearly the population of Minneapolis. Title X doesn’t fund the killing, only the killers.
Greg claimed to be a “militant” Libertarian (“I’m pro-choice on everything”). He amended that slightly to say, non-violent Libertarian. Then he went on to say that while he supported much of what Planned Parenthood does, he agrees that it should be de-funded. First, he said, because millions of Americans should not be taxed to support something they morally oppose. Second, he added, it should be de-funded because it’s unconstitutional.
Well, I was happy to get such strong support from Greg of Louisville. I greeted him as a “principled and honest man.” Why should American taxpayers have to pay more than $400 million every year to Planned Parenthood? Why should we provide a salary of $400,000 to Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood? That’s as much as the President of the United States is paid. That’s ten times the average yearly income of American families.
Of course, I’ll bet Greg from Louisville has not really delved into what Planned Parenthood actually does. Their primary purpose is to get young people involved in sex outside of marriage. This has had a devastating effect on minority communities, where most of Planned Parenthood facilities are located. The breakdown of the black family is a national tragedy.
Also a tragedy is what Planned Parenthood does on and near America’s campuses. Dr. Miriam Grossman has courageously cried out against the soullessness of the “hook-up” culture on campus. This compassionate psychiatrist knows that Planned Parenthood never provides condoms for the broken hearts.
This evil enterprise has given us 52 million abortions, 65 million sexually transmitted diseases, and an out-of-wedlock birthrate nearing 40%.
President Eisenhower was asked back in 1959 if the federal government should set up so-called family planning clinics nationwide. I can’t think of a more inappropriate role for the federal government, Ike replied. No wonder they call those Happy Days. And Ike was a moderate Republican. But in 1970, President Nixon signed the disastrous Family Planning and Reproductive Health Act. That opened the sluice gates of federal funding for Planned Parenthood and their cohorts.
Starting in 1981, President Reagan called for “zeroing out” Title X. He took that principled stance eight years in a row. He wanted no federal funding of this immoral activity. Every year, unfortunately, liberals in Congress put the money back in the federal budget.
President Obama went before the Planned Parenthood convention almost a year before he went before his own Democratic Party convention. That was especially regrettable, since he should know better. He ought to know about the racist roots of Planned Parenthood, how founder Margaret Sanger cooked up a “Negro Ministers Project” as a cover for her eugenicist plans. Today, black women undergo abortions at three times the rate of white women. No wonder Jesse Jackson—before he became politically correct—called abortion “black genocide.”
During the 2008 campaign, candidate Barack Obama said he and Michelle would teach their daughters morals. Good for them. But the First Family had better hope that Planned Parenthood doesn’t get to their daughters first.
Planned Parenthood teaches young people “don’t let anyone cheat you out of an orgasm.”
And that’s not all they teach them. In every way, Planned Parenthood wants to get at the kids and get around their parents.
More than twenty years ago, as we pro-family representatives were pleading with Congress to sustain President Reagan’s restrictions on Planned Parenthood, we wanted parents at the very least to be informed whenever Planned Parenthood or their ilk gave contraceptives to minors. Planned Parenthood squealed that President Reagan’s rule was a “squeal rule.”
Even liberal commentator Jeff Greenfield could see through that lie. He told us at the time: “You never had a chance in the media. They were toeing the Planned Parenthood line. But I have a 16-year old daughter, and I’d want to know.” Every loving parent would want to know.
Killing is not charity. Leading young people into temptation is not educational. Planned Parenthood is neither charitable nor educational. Let’s X-out Title X now. If this intrusive, immoral, and damaging activity is a constitutional exercise of the federal government’s powers, what can we say is not?
LifeNews.com Note: robert Morrison has served at the U.S. Department of Education with Gary Bauer under then-Secretary William Bennett. He was the first full-time Washington, D.C. representative of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. He went to the Family Research Council in 1991, where he served in various capacities, including editor of “Washington Watch,” Senior Education Policy Analyst, and Vice President for Policy.
