More shameful corporate welfare for Planned Parenthood
Printed in the Bloomington Herald-Times, June 5, 2017
To the Editor:
The Bloomington city website claims that social services funds "should provide a one-time investment." We have long ago abandoned any pretense that handouts to the local branch of an obscenely wealthy international corporation (Planned Parenthood) are a one-time investment.
We have funded Planned Parenthood's operating budget through its Women's Health Fund for several years. Why not remove this criteria, since the city council simply ignores it?
We know that this is not about helping women. This is about a political endorsement of Planned Parenthood specifically and a pro-abortion political agenda generally. If the city council wants to do this, it would be preferable to simply pass an annual resolution supporting PP (as they did in 2015) instead of wasting taxpayer dollars that would be better spent on a deserving organization.
The political nature of this decision was confirmed when a city council member spoke at the Rally for Choice earlier this year and bragged about how the council faces down opposition and funds Planned Parenthood every summer.
Dorothy Granger, who volunteers as a clinic escort for Planned Parenthood according to her website, should recuse herself from this vote to avoid a conflict of interest and maintain the highest ethical standards.