By Scott Tibbs, May 1, 2007
An open letter to the Bloomington City Council
Councilors,
It has come to my attention that the Bloomington Planned Parenthood has again applied for a grant from city government's John Hopkins fund. PP has asked you to give them $5300 for a voucher program that would allow women to access reproductive health services.
First, I would like to point out an omission in Planned Parenthood's application. While PP did not get funding from the John Hopkins program in 2000, they did get money from the Community Development Block Grant program that city government disburses annually.
As you know, the funding for Planned Parenthood has been controversial for several years now, because PP runs an abortion clinic at their South College facility. For over a decade now, Planned Parenthood has been performing abortions on Thursdays. Now, PP will be performing abortions on Saturdays as well.
While the abortion rate has been declining nationally, the annual number of abortions has actually been increasing in Monroe County. By performing this gruesome procedure two days a week instead of one, I expect that number to increase even faster. I am very disturbed by this.
As a taxpayer, I object to city government funding an organization that performs abortions, which I believe is the destruction of an innocent human life. At the stage of development where they are killed by Planned Parenthood's abortionist, these lives are not simply a mass of cells. They are visibly human, although very small and at the earliest stages of development.
I have asked this question in the past, and I ask it again: If the Boy Scouts asked for tax money, would you ignore the objections of those who oppose their exclusion of homosexuals as scout leaders? When Jeffrey Willsey voted against giving a taxpayer subsidy to Planned Parenthood five years ago, he used the Boy Scouts as an example of why he did not support public funding for Planned Parenthood.
There is another option this year. Instead of funding Planned Parenthood, you can instead work with county government to provide the same services and the same program at the county Health Department's family planning clinic.
This presents an opportunity for local units of government to work together to provide the reproductive health services that women need without offending the consciences of thousands of taxpayers who object to having their money go to an abortion provider. Furthermore, the new Volunteers in Medicine clinic may offer an opportunity to provide some of the same services.
Planned Parenthood is not simply a "health" clinic; it is a political organization that lobbies government on legislative matters. Planned Parenthood does not need this grant. By going to city government for a grant year after year, Planned Parenthood hopes to gain a political endorsement from city government. It is interesting to note that at the same time Planned Parenthood was asking for a handout from city government seven years ago, PP was lobbying against a license plate to support Crisis Pregnancy Centers because it was seen as "political.".
With the county family planning clinic as an option, there is no need and no excuse to give yet another grant to the local branch of America's #1 abortion provider. I urge you to reject Planned Parenthood's request and distribute the limited funds of the John Hopkins programs to more worthy charities.
Scott Tibbs
