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WORLD> America
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Report urges boost for US family planning program
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-24 21:10 Without publicly funded family planning, it said, the US abortion rate would be nearly two-thirds higher, and nearly twice as high among poor women. Some conservatives, however, dislike Title X because one of its big recipients is the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a major provider of abortions as well as family planning services. Title X funds cannot be used for abortions, but critics contend the federal money frees up other Planned Parenthood funds for its abortion services."It's another Planned Parenthood bailout," said Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council. "It covers their overhead." He also expressed concern about the concept of public funding of contraception for unmarried people. "The issue is whether taxpayers should fund, and thereby encourage, behavior that's risky and morally questionable," he said. One of the Democrats leading the push for more family planning money, Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, bristles at such criticism. "Right-wing Republicans continually use sex as a weapon when they don't have an effective argument to stand on," she wrote earlier this month. "They attack commonsense policies that not only save taxpayers money, but also promote public health." Adam Sonfield, a Guttmacher policy expert who co-authored the new report, said the institute is concerned by statistics showing low-income and minority women with higher rates of unintended pregnancies and abortions than US women as a whole. He expressed hope that proposals for improving family planning for low-income women would be part of the overall conversation as policymakers tackle health care reform.
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