Defunding Planned Parenthood Would Increase Abortions
WASHINGTON -- I have to admit that my first reaction to the Planned Parenthood videos was to cringe and try to avoid the topic.
Even for those who support abortion rights, there is a stomach-churning aspect to the surreptitiously taped conversations with Planned Parenthood officials -- the coldblooded discussion, between bites of salad and sips of red wine, of "less crunchy" techniques to obtain specimens, and the precise placement of "graspers" to avoid having to "crush" a valuable body part.
If you hear this and fail to squirm, there is something wrong with you.
That response is, of course, what the anti-abortion activists who posed as purchasers and prodded the officials into discussions of payment were counting on. The ensuing uproar, which is taking the congressional form of a clamor to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding, was predictable.
It is also not rational -- whatever your position in the abortion debate.
If you are among those who view abortion tantamount to murder, I respect your belief. But consider: Defunding Planned Parenthood would inevitably result in more unplanned pregnancies and therefore more abortions, not fewer. In fact, if you really want to reduce the number of abortions, you should be lobbying to increase funding for Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide birth control.
An important reminder: The federal money that goes to the organization cannot be used in any way to underwrite its abortion services. Sure, money is fungible but this funding comes with strict rules about commingling federal dollars with money and facilities used to perform abortions.
Rather, defunding Planned Parenthood would mean taking away money that it receives from the federal government for contraception and other essential services. Among low-income women who receive publicly supported contraceptive care at clinics, more than one-third use Planned Parenthood clinics, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
It is no answer to breezily suggest that women obtain birth control elsewhere. The capacity to serve this population does not exist and won't magically spring up overnight.
"You're removing contraception with this [defunding], and if you remove contraception, you get unintended pregnancies, which means more abortion," said Joseph Potter, a University of Texas demographer who has studied the impact of Texas' move to defund Planned Parenthood in 2013, and testified on the organization's behalf in a court challenge.
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