No corporate welfare for baby killers
Giving birth control to these vulnerable girls enables sexual abusers and predators to cover up their crimes.
Note: I sent this to the Bloomington City Council.
If Bloomington city government is going to have a social services fund, that money should go to truly local charities with a limited budget that actually need funding from local government and are not supported by a large national corporation with millions of dollars to spread around various affiliates, and are supported by mega-rich Hollywood celebrities and other multinational corporations.
Taxpayer money certainly should not go to organizations that many of those taxpayers find morally abominable. The annual subsidies of Planned Parenthood and All Options have been very divisive in this community for 23 years, and it is time for that to end. Please embrace a truly pro-choice philosophy by not forcing taxpayers to fund these organizations.
According to All Options' financial report, they ended the last fiscal year with $703,835 in assets, after boasting a $447,517 budget surplus the previous year. This is a very wealthy national organization that does not need any funding from Bloomington city government.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky recently merged with Planned Parenthood of some other states, and took in $70,417,119 in revenue according to the application they submitted for funding. This is another organization that does not need funding from city government, while other organizations actually would benefit from that funding.
It has been said many times that the money that goes to Planned Parenthood does not go to abortion. This year, that is manifestly untrue. Planned Parenthood openly says that they will spend that money on the birth control pill and emergency contraception, both of which act to prevent implantation of the fertilized egg. Planned Parenthood can play word games with the definition of pregnancy, but human life begins when sperm and egg form a completely new entity. Emergency contraception terminates that new life.
The way Planned Parenthood distributes these drugs is also deeply disturbing. Twelve years ago, PP openly admitted they would give birth control to girls as young as 13 years old. Will the money given to Planned Parenthood this year go to these girls? Both this council and PP have avoided answering that question, which is very suspicious. What are you trying to hide? The age of consent in Indiana is 16 years old, and it is a felony to engage in sexual activity (including intercourse) with a 13 year old. Giving birth control to these vulnerable girls enables sexual abusers and predators to cover up their crimes, and that is something tax dollars should never support.
As to All Options' request, there is no reason that city government cannot work with the county Health Department or other local charities to distribute medical supplies. That would be far preferable to forcing taxpayers to fund an organization that openly brags about its fund to pay for abortions. With other options available, this is not about need. This is about a political endorsement for a favored organization - an endorsement that leaves other needy charities behind.
Yes, I know that abortion is currently "legal." The fact that something is "legal" does not mean that others should be forced to participate in it. You would not give money to a National Rifle Association charity that helps people obtain firearms or learn how to use them, even though the right to bear arms is clearly established in the Second Amendment. The fact that abortion is "legal" simply does not stand up as an excuse to give tends of thousands of dollars to these organizations year after year.
There is far more money requested from the John Hopkins fund than is available every year, and it is wrong to deny funding to needy charities in order to make a political endorsement of these two organizations so that the city council can make a political statement in favor of "abortion rights." That is an abuse of the trust the citizens have placed in you and a betrayal of the purpose of the social services fund. Please deny funding to Planned Parenthood and All Options.