Most of us are familiar with the iconic opening line of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
But that sentence goes quite a bit further, including “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness….”
It sounds like Dickens could be writing in our own time, and about two states in our nation: Texas and New Jersey.
Several years ago, Texas defunded Planned Parenthood by excluding any provider that performs abortions from the Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which was jointly funded by state and federal tax dollars. Shortly thereafter, the Obama administration pulled all federal funding for Texas’ program—then $9 federal dollars for every $1 state dollar—endangering the services provided for poor and low-income women.
In response, Texas decided to make up the difference—fully funding the program since 2012—till the Trump Administration announced last week that it would restore federal funds even while Texas continued to ban Planned Parenthood from these family-planning dollars.
Meanwhile, as 2019 was coming to a close, New Jersey faced a major budget crisis and was slashing or freezing spending for public schools, senior services and hospitals. Despite this, however, New Jersey managed to nearly double funding for Planned Parenthood—increasing funding from $9.5 million to $20 million—in order to replace federal Title X family-planning funds that Planned Parenthood decided to forgo rather than stop performing or referring for abortions.
An “age of wisdom, an age of foolishness, the season of Light, the season of Darkness,” indeed.
But lest we offer overly quick congratulations to Texas and grimace when we consider New Jersey, we must bear in mind that Planned Parenthood has just announced the biggest election plan in its history. The nation’s largest abortion business plans to spend $45 million in the presidential, congressional and state races this year.
And quite apart from the fact that we know those dollars will be spent advancing the most radical pro-abortion candidates Planned Parenthood can find, we know that every tax dollar they receive—even for non-abortion services—frees up a dollar they can spend to influence elections and lobby legislators to restore and expand their own funding.
Thus, government funding—at the state or federal level—compounds the evil that Planned Parenthood commits each day its clinics are open, by making every taxpaying American participate in their business and their election efforts.
And that’s why Family Policy Alliance remains committed to unleashing biblical citizenship to protect life—from conception to natural death—in policy and in elections. It’s why we are engaged in advancing pro-life legislation, efforts to protect preborn babies at earlier and earlier stages of pregnancy, and to stop your tax dollars from flowing to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. And it’s why we are Targeting 2 Win in Election 2020—in key states and districts across the nation.
