When members of the Senate voted yesterday on whether taxpayer money should continue flowing to the Planned Parenthood abortion business to the tune of tens of millions of dollars annually, pro-life advocates had no friends in the Democratic Party.
While all but five Republicans voted for the resolution prohibiting the abortion business from receiving money under the Title X family planning portion of the federal budget, none of the three self-declared pro-life Democrats had any interest in yanking funds from the nation’s biggest abortion business that does more than 330,000 abortions on an annual basis.
Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Joe Manchin of West Virginia all voted to allow Planned Parenthood to continue exploiting women and children via abortions done at their taxpayer-funded facilities. Their votes will likely cost them support from pro-life organizations and pro-life voters in the 2012 elections as they each face difficult re-election campaigns.
Guy Benson, a writer at TownHall, a conservative web site, noted the unanimous pro-Planned Parenthood posture of the supposedly pro-life Democrats and says they are now officially extinct.
“Can we finally dispense with the myth of the pro-life Democrat?” he said. “In the Senate last night, three “pro-life” Democrats voted in lockstep with America’s Official Abortion Party to maintain federal funding to Planned Parenthood in a stand alone vote.”
“There was nothing to camouflage or obfuscate the issue,” Benson continued. “In case you’ve forgotten, Planned Parenthood is the nation’s number one provider of abortions. Ninety-seven percent of women who enter its doors are no longer pregnant when they exit, and almost 40 percent of the group’s revenues stem from abortions. It was founded in racism (remnants of which remain alive and well today), it is systemically corrupt, and its moral degradation reaches far beyond its abortion-related services.”
“Planned Parenthood receives nine figures in government funding each year, and presented with the chance to shut off the spigot, “pro-lifers” Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Ben Nelson, and Sen. Bob Casey all declined to do so,” Benson said. “If one cannot bring him- or herself to strip government funding from the nation’s largest abortion mill, one should abandon the pretense of calling oneself “pro-life.” It’s an insult to the movement, and an affront to the intelligence of pro-life voters.”
He concluded: “The Democratic Party is a pro-abortion party. Last night’s vote confirms that sad truth.”
In the House, just 10 Democrats voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood. Some of them included Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Joe Donnelley of Indiana, Nick Rahall of West Virginia, Heath Shuler of North Carolina, Colin Peterson of Minnesota and Dan Lipinski of Illinois.
Benson applauded Lipinski, saying, “To be fair, by my count, there is at least one black swan in all of Congress on this front: Rep. Dan Lipinski of Chicago. He speaks softly and genuinely walks the pro-life walk. Credit where it’s due.”
Combining the House and Senate Democrats, just 4 percent of Democrats voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood — whereas 95 percent of Republicans voted to remove funding from the abortion business.
The Susan B. Anthony List has started an advertising campaignagainst three of the Democrats voting for Planned Parenthood funding.
