SoCons and libertarians unite and cut off Planned Parenthood

For years, Planned Parenthood has received hundreds of millions of dollars from federal and state taxpayers, despite clear evidence that it has broken numerous state laws designed to protect children. Pressure to defund the abortion giant has fallen most heavily on pro-life groups, which are often overshadowed by better-funded opponents, and other organizations competing for Congress’ attention.  

Tuesday’s release of an undercover video showing that America’s largest abortion provider likely commits illegal abortions to illegally harvest fetal parts should change that. Libertarians, Tea Partiers, and anyone else who supports honest, ethical, and productive use of taxpayer dollars should demand Congress investigate, and then defund, Planned Parenthood.  

{mosads}For social conservatives, taking Planned Parenthood off the teat of the taxpayers and putting it at the mercy of the free market, is an issue of moral rights. But for Tea Party groups, it is most likely an issue of saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And for good government groups, whether libertarian, conservative, or liberal, funding Planned Parenthood is an issue of watching the American taxpayers’ hard-earned money thrown to support at best legally questionable and morally disturbing practices.  

Planned Parenthood has claimed its actions are altruistic and legal, despite evidence to the contrary. Such a defense is irrelevant, however, in light of the widespread use of organ harvesting and other macabre practices common in the abortion industry. 

In 1998, it was first found that the abortion industry was purposely harvesting the organs of unborn children. This led to an investigation by Congress and ABC’s 20/20. And while the Kansas clinic at the heart of the controversy was eventually cleared of illegal activity, it provided the first widespread glimpse into the horrifying workings of the abortion industry.  

In Canada, the harvesting of organs from unborn babies has long been reported. In 2006, a clinic in the Netherlands was found harvesting babies at 12 weeks’ gestation for beauty treatments for rich British women, while a clinic in Ukraine was doing the same for Russian women.

In 2010, pro-life groups raised the alarm about a University of Wisconsin’s late-term abortion program over concerns of medical experimentation, and in Ukraine prematurely born babies may have been sold for parts. 

Last year, officials in Oregon ended a program where aborted babies from Canada were used as a source of energy when their parts were designated “medical waste” and shipped to an incinerator in Oregon.  

Also common in Planned Parenthood clinics are illegal cover-ups of statutory rape by not reporting the crimes to the police. Likewise, employees have ignored reporting requirements when people posing as pimps and trafficked women have asked for abortions. 

Yet all of this is secondary to how the abortion industry really makes its obscene profits: By killing unborn human beings, no matter how badly it hurts America’s mothers.  

Trafficking in the sale of human body parts is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $500,000. Performing the partial birth abortion procedure, which President Bush outlawed in 2003, is punishable by up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 

But the risk is clearly worth the reward. Congress has largely sat quiet, letting Planned Parenthood make money hand over by selling fetal parts — a single vial of fetal cells can sell for thousands of dollars. And according to the lead investigator for the group that brought renewed light to organ harvesting, individual clinics can rake in as much as $100,000 per year.

This is all in addition to enormous taxpayer support.

Again, for social conservatives, defunding Planned Parenthood is a moral battle of the most important kind. But this is also clearly an issue of good government, of corrupt use of taxpayer dollars, and of making sure an industry that makes money through the killing of innocents isn’t funded by our hard earned tax dollars.  

GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina put it well, telling me that this “latest news is tragic and outrageous. This isn’t about ‘choice.’ It’s about profiting on the death of the unborn while telling women it’s about empowerment.” 

Fiorina is right. U.S. taxpayers should have no part in subsidizing any organization that profits from organ harvesting, trafficking in human body parts, and evading state and federal abortion laws. And political persuasion should not stand in the way of using taxpayer dollars as they were meant — to help people, and do what they cannot do themselves, not kill and dismember innocents to make a buck.

Westen is a co-founder of Voice of the Family, an international coalition of pro-life and pro-family groups which defends life and family in the media. He is also a co-founder of LifeSiteNews.com, a leading daily news website on life and family issues.