DFLA Supports Defunding Planned Parenthood
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Kristen Day
(202) 220-3066
June 23, 2015
WASHINGTON, DC – Democrats For Life of America (DFLA) urges Congress to reallocate federal funding for women's health services from Planned Parenthood to Community Health Centers (CHCs), which are more accessible anddo more extensive preventive care, including mammograms. Planned Parenthood, a profitable $1.2 billion-per-year corporation, is under investigation for selling body parts, including hearts, lungs and livers, of aborted children.
“Whether or not Planned Parenthood is engaging in an illegal selling of body parts, the videos highlight what Americans have too long been asked to ignore – the humanity of the unborn and the reality that abortion ends a life,” said Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats For Life of America. “The videos suggest that the procedure can be or is modified to accommodate not the medical needs of the woman, but the ability to harvest the unborn child’s organs. It is time to recognizethe life in the womb and to provide more support and more options to pregnant women.”
Two videos have been released showing a Planned Parenthood executive discussing selling or “donating for a fee” human body parts from aborted fetuses. In both videos, the Planned Parenthood representative discussed changing the kind of abortion procedure they do to “preserve the specimen” or prevent crushing the organs, such as the liver or heart. The process puts the opportunity for revenue over women’s health. Although Planned Parenthood denies selling body parts for profit, the questions and doubts about legality surrounding this practice are continuing to escalate. The very fact that organs can be harvested belies the myth that abortions are performed on “blobs of tissue.”
“Currently, we are providing federal dollars to an organization that is in a position to influence a woman to choose abortion and then the organization can profit from her decision,” said Day. “Most Americans are opposed to taxpayer funding of abortion, and decades-old law supports that notion. There needs to be a complete separation between one organization that counsels women seeking abortion and another organization that harvests the organs. This practice invites deception and corruption.”
The potential for abuse with counseling a patient to abort her childand then selling the child's body parts for profit has been a concern for decades. There was a moratorium on fetal tissue research in the 1980s over concern that the tissue was harvested from aborted human beings. Eight states and the U.S. Congress are now investigating Planned Parenthood for wrongdoing.
“Supporters of Planned Parenthood have expressed concern that women will not have access to medical care. We share that concern, which is why we are calling on Congress to reallocate the funding to Community Health Centers,” said Day.” There are 9,000 Community Health Center sites across the country; almost every single Congressional district has at least one. They vastly outnumber the 700 Planned Parenthood facilities, and they provide fuller services for families. We want to ensure that women still have access to the services and support they need.”
The CHCs provide more complete health services than Planned Parenthood, including mammograms. They do not perform abortions, and they serve more than 23 million individuals, regardless of ability to pay. Women in rural areas, in particular, are more likely to have access to a Community Health Center, given that the centers target communities in need. Planned Parenthood facilities tend to be located in or near high-populated cities, such as Los Angeles and Chicago.
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