?The guest column (Oct. 11) by Sen. Dawn Hill and Rep. Sara Gideon was not very accurate and left a lot unsaid about Planned Parenthood.
First off, abortion for health reasons or for birth control is one thing. Partial birth abortions and harvesting post-abortion baby parts for sale is quite another.
Opposing the latter horribly cruel practices cannot in any way be considered extremism.
The people on the right — called extremists five times in the Sunday column — are not all opposed to abortion, nor are they bent on reducing health care for women. On the contrary, House members have proposed that the $500 million that taxpayers have been giving to Planned Parenthood be given to other agencies that do not perform abortions (of which there are many).
It seems strange to me that Planned Parenthood does not offer mammograms for breast cancer while claiming to exist only for the health of women.
Here are some other things that the writers failed to mention — all from information found on the Internet from Planned Parenthood:
• In 2006, Planned Parenthood performed 290,000 abortions. That number has gone up every year since and represents one third of the organization’s revenue.
• Planned Parenthood offers only one adoption referral for every 180 abortions.
• The CEO of Planned Parenthood is reported to be paid more than $600,000 a year.
Planned Parenthood is very much involved in politics — during the 2014 election cycle it spent $1.8 million supporting Democrats in various ways and specifically gave $680,000 to various congresspersons and senators. They gave $0 to people on the right. In fact, Planned Parenthood spent $2.8 million against Republicans during 2014 elections (according to the Federal Election Commission).
So, in answer to Sen. Hill and Rep. Gideon, the people on the right are not extremists for working hard to prevent partial birth abortions and the harvesting of baby parts. They are morally bound to do so according to their oath of office and the U.S. Constitution.
And, I submit that Hill and Gideon’s support for Planned Parenthood’s activities is misplaced.
George Jones, Otisfield
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