Federal dollars prohibited from paying for abortions
Sunday’s letter to the editor about Planned Parenthood and tax-payer-funded abortion services is misleading in its implication that Planned Parenthood receives a large amount of tax-payer funds for abortion.
In 1976, an amendment to a funding bill was written by Henry Hyde to prohibit federal funding for abortion services for women except in the cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman.
The Hyde Amendment has been slightly revised over the years and is included in other legislation, such as in The No Tax Payer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017, and the 2017 appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The latter legislation contains this language:
“TITLE I--PROHIBITING FEDERALLY FUNDED ABORTIONS
(Sec. 101) This bill makes permanent the prohibition on the use of federal funds, including funds in the budget of the District of Columbia, for abortion or health coverage that includes abortion. The prohibitions in this bill, and current prohibitions, do not apply to abortions in cases of rape or incest, or where a physical condition endangers a woman’s life unless an abortion is performed.
“Abortions may not be provided in a federal health care facility or by a federal employee.
“TITLE II--APPLICATION UNDER THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
(Sec. 201) This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to prohibit qualified health plans from including coverage for abortions. (Qualified health plans are sold on health insurance exchanges, are the only plans eligible for premium subsidies and small employer health insurance tax credits, and fulfill an individual’s requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage.) Currently, qualified health plans may cover abortion, but the portion of the premium attributable to abortion coverage is not eligible for subsidies.”
The Guttmacher Institute reported in 2004 that less than one-half of 1 percent of women receive abortions arising from rape. About 4 percent of abortions reportedly are for the woman’s health condition.
Clearly, many people object to abortion on religious or conscientious grounds, but most–about 97 percent — of the medical services furnished to women by Planned Parenthood are not for abortion, but for pregnancy testing; prenatal care; birth control; HIV services; STD testing, treatment, and vaccines; pelvic exams; cancer screenings; urinary tract infections; routine checkups; sex education; and related services regularly provided to women by doctors. Men can also be tested and treated by Planned Parenthood for STDs, fertility, sexual dysfunction, birth control, and routine checkups.
The organization serves about 4 million mostly low-income (79 percent) people in the US. Services are provided to about 75 percent of their patients to prevent unintended pregnancies. Using private funding, Planned Parenthood provides abortion services to about 3 percent of its patients not covered by the federal exceptions.
The Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan relies on analysis by scientist Wm. Robert Johnston to report abortion statistics. Johnston reports that federally-funded abortions caused by rape in 2007 totaled 378; those caused by incest were 9; those due to the health of the mother were 81. The exceptions to federally-funded abortions totaled 468 in 2007, according to these figures.
Planned Parenthood reports that abortions cost from $0 to $950. If we use the average cost figure, and if Planned Parenthood did all of the abortions allowed by the federal exceptions, it would have been paid $222,300 for these 468 abortions, not $500 million as suggested by the letter-writer. The total annual budget for Planned Parenthood in the US is $1.3 Billion, of which, $530 Million comes from government sources, mainly for non-abortion services provided to mostly women on Medicaid.
To put these data in perspective, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 827,609 abortions were performed in 2007. All of these statistics should be seen as tentative, but appear to be the best data available.
Opposing abortion should not lead anyone to unfairly attack Planned Parenthood, which is a major resource for women who cannot afford the routine medical services that should be available to all women (and men). As long as we have rampant economic inequality in this country, Planned Parenthood is an essential health care resource, and planned parenthood is a sensible practice.
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Lamar Hankins is a resident of San Marcos and a former city attorney
