The City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has voted to proceed with a planned $250,000 sponsorship for Planned Parenthood. Though city councilors initially announced the funding in May, it was challenged by City Councilor Renée Grout, who proposed a bill that would reroute that money to Barrett House, a local homeless shelter, instead. Councilors voted Monday to reject Grout’s proposal and keep the sponsorship of the abortion business as planned. However, they also added additional budget funding for Barrett House within the city budget.
City Councilors Isaac Benton, Pat Davis, Tammy Fiebelkorn, Trudy Jones and Klarissa Peña voted for the bill that funded Planned Parenthood. According to the Albuquerque Journal, the debate drew impassioned speakers from both sides of the issue to the August 15 meeting. Fiebelkorn, who sponsored the original Planned Parenthood bill, offered the claim that Planned Parenthood provides much-needed services like STD testing, contraception, and wellness visits. “I think those are all things that most normal people support,” she said. “I would love to give Planned Parenthood way, way more money,” she said.
Councilor Dan Lewis, however, questioned Fiebelkorn as to why an abortion business that brings in millions per year would need additional funding. “Did they approach you about this money?” he asked her. “Is this something you were passionate about? Is this an organization that’s helped you?” (While Lewis mentions that Planned Parenthood brings in millions each year, the reality is that it received nearly $6 billion from U.S. taxpayers while accumulating $1 billion in excess revenue over expenses based on numbers from its 2019-2020 report.)
READ: Pregnancy centers vs. abortion businesses: Who truly offers ‘limited services’?
Fiebelkorn responded with a defense of Planned Parenthood. “It is insane to say that $250,000 for this great organization won’t be spent in a really good manner,” she said.
KSFR reports that Lewis also questioned whether or not the funds would be used for abortions. The Albuquerque Department Director of Family and Community Services Carol Pierce claimed the funds would go toward services like wellness visits, breast exams, STD testing, and cancer screenings. Pierce didn’t mention abortion as one of the covered services.
But while Pierce and Fiebelkorn lauded Planned Parenthood as a much-needed organization offering these wellness services to the community, it’s an oft-used claim that has little supporting data. In fact, the corporation’s own reported numbers show just the opposite. Past Planned Parenthood reports have revealed that just three percent of women of reproductive age visit Planned Parenthood facilities. Despite this incredibly small number, it commits 41% of all abortions in the nation.
While the corporation claims to perform breast exams, Planned Parenthood does not offer mammograms — a staple procedure in breast cancer screening. Additional data shows that Planned Parenthood provides less than one percent of US pap tests, less than one percent of prenatal services, and two percent of breast cancer screenings. Despite these abysmal numbers, the number of abortions it commits every year continues to increase (an estimated one abortion every 89 seconds). Newly-released data points to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) as the primary provider of the health and wellness services that Pierce and Fiebelkorn describe, outnumbering Planned Parenthood facilities by 14 to 1.
While Albuquerque city councilors can paint the city’s funding of Planned Parenthood as a common good that will provide much-needed health services to the city’s residents, the numbers don’t lie. The killing of preborn children, not the health and well-being of women, is the lifeblood of the organization.
“Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!
