The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Last week the House defeated the Pence Amendment, which would have stopped taxpayers from funding the country's leading abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. At the same time, some soi disant pro-lifers are working to increase Planned Parenthood's tax take. Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) quickly emerged as a leading pro-life Democrat and advocate for finding "common ground" on abortion. But his Reducing the Need for Abortions and Supporting Parents Act has been criticized by some pro-lifers for increasing rather than decreasing the likelihood of abortion.

The bill contains an increase in funding for family planning under Title X, in order to reduce the likelihood of unplanned pregnancies. But many of the organizations providing these services also are involved in abortion. A recent Family Research Council statement on the legislation points out:

The Ryan bill contains no provisions preventing recipients from promoting or referring patients for abortion. Since Planned Parenthood -- the nation's largest and most profitable abortion provider -- is funded under the Ryan measure, inevitably the group will use the funds it receives to encourage the very procedure the bill says it wants to make more rare.

Not long ago, Ramesh Ponnuru said of Ryan in National Review, "Nowadays his allegedly 'pro-life' advocacy consists almost entirely of working with [pro-choice] Congresswoman DeLauro to funnel more money to abortion providers." It's the kind of logic that gets you an ambassadorship to Malta these days.