By Scott Tibbs, June 21, 2013
On June 19, the Bloomington City Council made a mockery of the Jack Hopkins Social Services fund by giving a $5,000 handout to Planned Parenthood. The council showed great disrespect to the taxpayers of Bloomington and the other social services organizations that requested funding, and all nine councilors should be thrown out of office in 2015. Let's break it down by the numbers, from PP's fiscal report and the Hopkins fund:
- Planned Parenthood's revenue: $14,336,66
- Planned Parenthood's expenses: $13,984,785
- Planned Parenthood's profit: $351,883
- Total amount requested from the Hopkins fund: $383,786
- Total amount distributed by the Hopkins fund: $257,500
Planned Parenthood's excess of revenue over expenses for their most recent fiscal year is $94,383 more than the total amount distributed to social service organizations by the Hopkins fund. This is utterly shameful. Planned Parenthood clearly does not need the $5,000 they requested from the City Council and was seeking these funds for the sole purpose of getting a political endorsement from the city council. It is shameful that the council is perverting the purpose of the Hopkins fund by using it for political purposes rather than assisting social service agencies in their efforts to help those in need.
Planned Parenthood's grant does not even meet the criteria for funding that agencies are supposed to meet. The Hopkins fund is supposed to be for one-time projects. Things like fixing air conditioning or providing refrigeration units meet that standard. Planned Parenthood's grant will pay for STD tests, same-day HIV tests, pregnancy tests, pap tests, and colposcopy & biopsy procedures - all things that Planned Parenthood already does when they are not murdering babies.
Several of my friends and I attended the meeting and spoke against the funding for PP because the organization murders babies every week at their "clinic" on South College Avenue. Even though this corporate welfare supposedly does not go to PP's abortion business, we object to our tax dollars being given to an organization that murders babies in their mothers' wombs. Jim Billingsley offered an excellent rebuttal to the handout for PP with a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."
One of the people who spoke in public comment said that the city should not be pushing a specific religious belief or interpretation of the Bible. But by funding Planned Parenthood, the City Council is doing just that. They are taking taxpayer dollars confiscated by force and giving it to an organization that thousands of citizens find morally repugnant. If we are interested in not taking sides in the abortion debate, there should be no subsidy for Planned Parenthood.
This nonsense needs to stop. Planned Parenthood is not even pretending to follow the guidelines any longer, and other organizations that could use the money for legitimate needs are being shut out so the City Council can make a political donation with taxpayer dollars every June. Since Planned Parenthood will not stop asking for money forcibly confiscated from taxpayers, the City Council needs to tell them they will not get one more dime - or the voters need to replace them with a new council that will.
