In 1976, the House of Representatives passed the so-called ‘Hyde Amendment’, essentially barring the use of taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for abortions. Here is a more detailed description:
In U.S. politics, the Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortion unless the pregnancy arises from incest, rape, or to save the life of the mother. The Hyde Amendment is not a permanent law, but rather is a “rider” that in various forms has been routinely attached to annual appropriations bills since 1976. Legislation including the Hyde Amendment generally only restricts the use of funds allocated for the Department of Health and Human Services and primarily affects Medicaid.
The amendment, named for late Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde has long been used to taxpayer dollars from directly funding abortions. That said, there are ways around it and no organization benefits more than Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parent is an abortion mill masquerading as an organization that claims to cater to “women’s health.” They are famous for telling the lie that abortions only account for 3% of the “services” they offer. They count handing out a condom or referring a woman for a mammogram (PP does not actually perform them) as a “service” and so the 300,000+ unborn they kill every year gets lost in numbers.
The fact is, abortion makes up nearly 40% of their revenue which is significant to their survival as an organization. Their downplaying of what abortion does for their organization is just lie in a string of lies these people tell to continue to thrive on killing of the unborn.
To keep up this status, Planned Parenthood is the recipient of over $500 million every year in taxpayer funding. Naturally, the mainstream media as well as Democratic groups masquerading as media watchdogs such as the horde of Obama/Hillary boot licking sycophants over at Media Matters will bleat all day that despite PP being the recipients of such taxpayer largess, none of it directly goes to pay for abortions.
The key word there is, directly.
Maybe the average liberal semi-castrated male who is studying for his PhD in gender studies and left-wing feminists such as addle-brained Amanda Marcotte believe this piffle.
But those of us who have spent any time with any kind of business work and who understand simple math know that’s all a steaming pile of crap.
The $500 million is a subsidy that allows Planned Parenthood to keep the price of their abortion services low. It’s as simple as that.
Think of it this way. Let’s say you wanted to start your own food truck and you’re going to sell all different types of burgers and french fries. You add up everything you need, how much you’ll lay out initially, how much you’ll need weekly, etc. At the end of all of that you figure you need to price any combo of a burger and fries at $12 to make a profit.
But now, somebody comes along and says, “Hey, I am going to give you some money every year that you never have to pay back. My only stipulation is that you never use any of the money to buy hamburger meat.”
Would such a need stop you from taking the money? Of course not. You’d apply the money to other expenditures and then realize with that grant money, you can now lower the price of your burger combos to $8.
That is exactly how Planned Parenthood does it. They’d have to charge a lot more for abortion without the half a billion n taxpayer funds it receives every year. And for that reason, many women would go elsewhere. That would cost Planned Parenthood a lot in revenues.
They’re not going to allow that to happen without a fight.
On the heels of what the Center for Medical Progress has been able to uncover with respect to Planned Parenthood (thus far) through the release of four (with at least 6 more on the way) videos showing representatives of Planned Parenthood essentially engaged in the trafficking of organs of aborted babies, there is no coherent argument that can be made for why this organization continues to receive federal funding.
Sadly, we have Congressional leaders who are too chickenshit to have this battle. Leon Wolf over at Red State has a great piece dealing with their cowardice in the face of this horror.
What happens remains to be seen. But don’t let them get away with the lie. Every time Planned Parenthood performs an abortion, your taxes are helping to pay for it.