This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/setting-the-record-straight/
2025 | Week of May 26 | Radio Transcript #1620
Let’s set the record straight right now. If every penny of public funding for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin or Planned Parenthood anywhere in the country goes away, women, including low-income women, will not be deprived of health care—legitimate health care.
And that means we need to set another record straight. Abortion is not, I repeat, not health care. Abortion is the intentional killing of an unborn baby—a human person bearing the image of our Creator God. Health care is intended to address a sickness, a disease, an injury—pregnancy is none of those. Health care doesn’t set out to take a life; it sets out to preserve life.
Two things liberals are really good at is playing with language and scare tactics. As the President, the US House, and the US Senate continue to grapple with the so-called “big, beautiful bill,” which currently calls for significant defunding of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood, abortion advocates are talking very loudly, as it were, and are saying some pretty scary things about what will happen to “health care.”
Here’s a great recent example from the Chief Strategy Officer of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin: “‘Defunding’ Planned Parenthood would cost taxpayers nearly $300 million and would leave ‘tens of thousands of Wisconsinites without access to critical, lifesaving health care. Planned Parenthood health centers are an irreplaceable part of our health care system in Wisconsin.”
This statement from the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund is even better: “The consequences will be catastrophic. If Congress passes its reconciliation bill as written, an estimated 200 Planned Parenthood health centers could close, leaving entire communities and regions without access to essential health care. Cancers will go undetected, birth control will be harder to get, and the public health infrastructure — already pushed to the brink — will break down.”
According to this Planned Parenthood spokesperson, if public funding for Planned Parenthood goes away, horrible things happen. Those are scare tactics for sure. What Planned Parenthood is really saying is, “You’re going to shut down us if you do this! We’ll never make it without taxpayer money!”
Last year, Planned Parenthood nationally, which includes Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, received nearly $800 million of public funding—that’s our tax dollars. As near as I can tell from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s 2023 report, about 58% of its funding came from Medicaid—in other words, taxpayer funds—and grants, probably most of which were government grants—again taxpayer funds. This means in all likelihood, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin took in about $21 million in public funding in 2023.
Planned Parenthood would like us all to believe most of that money went to services other than abortion. But their numbers don’t bear that out. In a typical year, abortions make up about 97% of what Planned Parenthood calls “pregnancy resolution services” and recent reports shows that their total cancer screening and prevention services have dropped by 71%, including declines of 72% for breast exams and 74% for pap tests—all of which would be true health care.[1] Suffice it to say, Planned Parenthood is in the abortion business, not health care business.
Here’s the rest of the story. If Planned Parenthood is truly defunded, the hundreds of millions in public money Planned Parenthood is used to receiving wouldn’t just go to some general fund. It would be redirected to federally qualified health centers across the country. In Wisconsin we have 158 of these centers located in both small and large communities, and they serve economically challenged patients, with a full array of bona fide health care—but not abortion.
In addition, we have over 60 pregnancy care centers, many with medical centers providing some true health care for women, usually for free. Planned Parenthood has just 21 facilities in our state. Access to health care wouldn’t be restricted if Planned Parenthood had to close every facility in our state due to lack of funding.
What you’re hearing from Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates right now is them gasping for air as they consider their funding stream being truly cut off. They’re playing loose with language and hyperbole to make us think women will die and the entire public health care system will collapse if they don’t get these taxpayer funds. Right now we need elected officials who will listen to the truth and shut out the Planned Parenthood noise designed to do what they do best—purposefully deceive.
For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling, reminding you that God, through the Prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
[1]https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-planned-parenthoods-2022-23-annual-report/
Haylee Lawver