It was a somewhat sad, quaint scene. I got out of an Uber and noticed eyes on me immediately. I had arrived at Planned Parenthood’s flagship center in Manhattan. It’s supposed to close soon, but for now it’s still in operation. Saturday used to be a big day for surgical abortions, but now the staff here are focused on administering chemical abortions and, what is a new priority for the abortion giant, puberty blockers for gender transitions. There are referrals for the rest nowadays. The only sign of life came from a security guard, standing at the back door. This Planned Parenthood is closed on Saturdays now; I had shown up for a perfunctory rally before the final passage of the so-called “big, beautiful bill,” which made history last Friday by cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Congress’s cutting funding for Planned Parenthood makes sense. Since the Dobbs decision upended Roe v. Wade, abortion law is supposed to be made at the state level. Some of us would point out that this approach didn’t work so well in the case of, for example, slavery, but that’s for another time. For now, defenders of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood argue that cutting it — even for a year, which is where Congress eventually wound up, down from the proposed ten years that was initially passed by the House — amounts to a backdoor ban on abortion. But perhaps it’s an opportunity for Planned Parenthood to make honest donors out of Hollywood celebrities who constantly insist that the government fund their favorite cause.
Comments