After the 2010 elections, pro-life state legislatures across the nation passed hundreds of laws designed to protect pre-born children and their mothers. While some of those have been held up in courts and others declared unconstitutional, important changes have taken place in Texas, Kansas, South Dakota, and Tennessee, among others.
The potential for state-level pro-life laws has only increased in light of the GOP victories in November. This is a marked contrast to what passes for pro-life efforts in Congress, where Republicans have promised to vote on a 20-week abortion ban doomed to failure on President Obama’s desk.
{mosads}This fig-leaf legislation is a poor second to a campaign that could save hundreds of thousands of mothers, fathers, and their children from the horror of abortion. With next week’s Continuing Resolution approaching, Republicans now have a tremendous opportunity to make good on their pro-life promises – namely, by ending the forced taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion company.
Not only would this save $500 million in a time of near-record deficits, but it would also relieve taxpayers — a majority of whom oppose publicly funded abortions — of having to bankroll the destruction of hundreds of thousands of human lives. In addition to causing emotional and physical harm to mothers who have abortions, Planned Parenthood’s War on Women will abort one in sixteen girls who would otherwise be born in 2014.
Planned Parenthood’s transgressions include more than its abortion-for-profit business model. Its willingness to cover up the rape of underage girls, its facilitation of prostitution rings and sex slavery, and its lies about fetal development to its customers should make Congress eager to defund it. The abortion giant also floods teenagers with contraceptives, regardless of the provendeadly health risks from the pill and its sister drugs and devices.
Defunding may not require the no-holds-barred battle that the Republican leadership seems to fear. Last year, Kansas became the first in the union to totally defund Planned Parenthood by prioritizing state Medicaid funds for state health facilities. Congress could do the same on the federal level.
Ending the federal subsidization of Planned Parenthood isn’t just good policy — it’s good politics. An effective campaign would put a spotlight on who truly stands for “choice” in our two-party system — and it’s not the pro-abortion Democrats.
In 2011, the GOP failed to defund Planned Parenthood, but the battle showed that abortion is where the Democratic Party is unwilling to compromise. Republicans should take advantage of this bright line between the parties to show the American people that a party dedicated to life is a party dedicated to choice – the choices we who are born take for granted every day. After all, a person cannot make choices if he is deprived of his life before he is even born.
Republicans say they want to lead America back to its place as Ronald Reagan’s City on the Hill. Protecting the vulnerable and the innocent – fighting for the civil rights of all people, regardless of size, location, or dependency on others – can never happen too soon. At this time, December 11 is about as soon as it can get.
Belsky, deputy editor for the American Thinker, served for two years as communications director for the pro-life nonprofit Live Action. Siggins is the D.C. correspondent for . LifeSiteNews, a leading pro-life and pro-family daily news site. He is a co-author of the book America’s Bankrupt Legacy: The Future of the Debt-Paying Generation, to be published in 2015.