You read that correctly. Defunding Planned Parenthood will not stop abortions, but funding Planned Parenthood might.
Planned Parenthood (PP) is a publicly funded health clinic aimed at meeting the needs of women and their families. 3 percent of their total offered services are abortions. Many individuals across the country take a stance commonly known as "pro-life" and are against abortions and public funding for them. Pro-life legislation intending to cut all federal funding from PP has gained ground. The House voted in favor of it back in September.
PP will probably be able to stay open if defunded. However, their services will likely dwindle in quality and abundance. Just over 40% of the funding PP receives is federal money. They would need to rely solely on other sources of income, such as internal revenue, private donations, and non-governmental service money.
Defunding PP will not stop abortions. The Hyde Act mandates that abortions can't be funded with public money except in cases of rape, incest, and to protect the life of the mother.
Only private donations and other monies can be spent on abortions. The
only way abortions would stop is if small PP clinics had
to close completely due to cut spending. Presumably, larger clinics
would stay open.
However, if PP clinics did close completely, the other 97 percent of the services they offer would disappear. That's everything from cancer screening to STD and STI prevention services. A vote to defund PP is not a vote to end or defund abortion. It is a vote to end health services for low income women.
Regardless of your stance on abortion, it is also important to note the costs of defunding PP. There are monetary costs as well as human costs.
There are two funds PP receives money from: Title X, a family planning program, and Medicaid. Presumably, cuts in these areas would free up money for other clinics and other Medicaid initiatives. However, what we assume at first glance isn't always the case.
About 332,000 abortions were performed by PP in 2011. A defunded Planned Parenthood might have actually increased that number as well as government spending. Additional births create additional humans, many of whom would be eligible for government assistance and Medicaid. Abortion procedures and protection instruments cost far less than maintaining the livelihood and health of a child. If other PP services such as contraception education were cut as a result of lost public funding, the number of privately funded abortions would likely increase. Less protection, more babies. In turn, the amount of government assistance needed would increase as well.
With a defunded PP, dollars are lost, more abortions occur and health is compromised. Lack of access to STD prevention? That means more STDs, more health costs. Lack of early cancer detection? More cancer, more health costs. More unwanted pregnancies? More unwanted babies, more government assistance. Even if you as a taxpayer are content paying more to prevent the practice of abortion at some clinics (but not all, since abortion will prevail via private funding) you are probably more likely to want to pay less and protect people from health issues.
Defunding PP amounts to prevailing abortion, more abortion and fewer women's health services. No matter where you stand, odds are this isn't what you want.
Why not provide PP with extra funding to be spent on family planning, protection and child health initiatives? Why not care for children and their families and save yourself the hassle of paying for unwanted children? Why not help PP make them wanted?
If you aren't comfortable supplying PP with more funds for any reason, why not use legislation to mandate they spend more of their existing funds on the prevention of unwanted pregnancy instead of taking tools away from them?
The way I see it, supporting PP satisfies those on both sides of the abortion argument as well as those who want to keep government spending low. Women stay healthier and have more access to the contraception that keeps them from ever needing to have a privately funded abortion - an abortion they would have even if we cut public funding from PP.
