RE: Why Planned Parenthood Is Good For Texas

            In reading Robert's post, I found myself agreeing with Robert’s overall choice that Planned Parenthood should continue to be funded, but I did not find all of his facts to be correct. For example, I agree that taxpayers were not really paying for abortions through Planned Parenthood. However, I did more research on how abortions were handled through Planned Parenthood, and I did not find that abortions were “subsidized” by the organization as Robert explained. According to The Washington Times writer Stephen Dinan, Planned Parenthood is not allowed to use any of the taxpayers’ money for abortions. It would have been beneficial if Robert had provided an embedded link to an article that stated that Planned Parenthood does in fact subsidize abortions. This would have provided more credibility.

            Furthermore, Robert states that “Hell, even Texas law requires that groups receiving any government funding be both legally and financially separate from abortion clinics—requirements which Planned Parenthood obliges by.” Again, I found this statement to be false. Dinan wrote that Planned Parenthood’s “clinics account for about a quarter of abortions in the United States.” Furthermore, Robert Pear, a writer for The New York Times, states that the organization provides more than 300,000 abortions per year.

            Robert also explains that continuing to fund Planned Parenthood is “arguably cheaper,” because “ceasing to can only lead to a spike in unplanned pregnancies among poor women--who will in turn, become reliant on the still in place Medicaid.” There could be some truth to this statement, but I highly doubt it after discovering how much money Planned Parenthood receives from government funding. According to Suzanne Sataline, an author for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Planned Parenthood receives a million dollars a day from taxpayer funds.

            Overall, the only two arguments that Robert makes that I found true after my research was that conservatives do want to defund Planned Parenthood based on financial concern and pro-life beliefs as well as that many people at Planned Parenthood receive multiple health services, such as contraceptives, cancer screenings, and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

            Robert does make a lot of valid points, and if I had not researched more, then his writing would have easily persuaded me. However, his lack of providing sources where he found his facts that support his argument leaves the article as a whole non-credible, and I am unable to see if maybe his facts are correct according to the sources he found.