Ron Paul: Politics Is Not The Path To Pro-Life Victory – OpEd

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During my time in Congress, I regularly introduced legislation forbidding organizations that perform abortions from receiving federal funding. The US Government should not force taxpayers to subsidize an activity they believe is murder. Thus, while I was horrified by the recently released videos showing Planned Parenthood officials casually discussing selling the organs of aborted babies, I am glad that the reaction to these videos has renewed efforts to end federal funding of abortion.

My experience in Congress does not leave me optimistic that federal funding of Planned Parenthood will be ended this year, however. This is not just because the current US president is pro-abortion. When I started my efforts to end taxpayer support of abortion, I was shocked to find out how many Republicans, including some self-described “pro-life” leaders, were unsupportive of, and sometimes hostile to, my efforts.

Most pro-life politicians preferred to add language to funding bills prohibiting federal funds from being used for abortions, rather than denying federal funds to abortion providers. This approach does not stop US taxpayers from subsidizing abortions. The reason is that money is fungible. Giving Planned Parenthood $100 to use for non-abortion activities allows it to spend an additional $100 of its non-government funds on abortion.

Foreign interventionists in both parties were particularly hostile to my efforts to eliminate federal funding for international organizations that performed or promoted abortions. This is a foolish policy that gives people around the globe another reason to resent the US government.

Planned Parenthood may have abandoned the explicitly racist and eugenic views of its founder Margaret Sanger, but the majority of its abortion “services” are still provided to lower-income and minority women. Every day nearly 2,000 African-American babies lose their lives to abortion, a rate five times higher than the Caucasian abortion rates.

I support the black lives matter movement. I have long advocated an end to the drug war, police militarization, and other threats to liberty that disproportionately victimize African-Americans. However, I wish some of the black lives matter movement’s passion and energy was directed to ending abortion. Unborn black lives also matter.

The federal government has no constitutional authority to permit, fund, or even outlaw abortion. Therefore, efforts to make abortion a federal crime are just as unconstitutional as efforts to prohibit states from outlawing abortion. A Congress that truly cared about the Constitution would end all federal funding for abortion and pass legislation restricting federal jurisdiction over abortion, thus returning the issue to the states.

While passing legislation may help limit abortion, the pro-life movement will never succeed unless it changes people’s attitudes toward the unborn. This is why crisis pregnancy centers, which provide care and compassion to women facing unplanned pregnancies, have done more to advance the pro-life cause than any politician. By showing women they have viable alternatives to abortion, these centers have saved many lives.

One factor hindering the anti-abortion movement’s ability to change people’s minds is that too many abortion opponents also support a militaristic foreign policy. These pro-lifers undercut their moral credibility as advocates for unborn American lives when they display a callous indifference to the lives of Iraqi, Iranian, and Afghan children.

Libertarians who support abortion should ask themselves how they can expect a government that does not respect the unborn’s right to life to respect their property rights. Therefore, all those who wish to create a society of liberty, peace, and prosperity should join me in advocating for a consistent ethic of life and liberty that respects the rights of all persons, born and unborn.

This article was published by RonPaul Institute.

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American physician, author, and politician who served for many years as a U.S. Representative for Texas. He was a three-time candidate for President of the United States, as a Libertarian in 1988 and as a Republican in 2008 and 2012.

8 thoughts on “Ron Paul: Politics Is Not The Path To Pro-Life Victory – OpEd

  • August 3, 2015 at 9:14 am
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    I feel sorry for “Wong Paul”. He claims he was in Congress all of those years and yet is ignorant of the fact that NO tax dollars are being used for abortion, and have not for more than 20 years due to the Hyde Amendment. No one is “being forced to subsidize an activity they believe is murder”. The only murder here is the Truth. Go home Wrong Paul and enjoy your tax payer subsidized retirement.

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    • August 5, 2016 at 4:07 am
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      This is an ignorant and false statement. Taxpayer dollars most certainly do go towards abortion, by funding abortion providers, specifically Planned Parenthood. The mere fact that this money isn’t earmarked specifically for abortion is meaningless. They still keep the organization afloat, and the organization kills babies.

      I disagre with Ron Paul that the Constitution does not provide the Federal government with the authority to regulate abortion. The 14th Amendment would seem to provide that guarantee most clearly and sufficiently. Other than that though, he is absolutely right. And that is why he is the one libertarian I respect and admire more than any other.

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    • August 7, 2016 at 8:54 pm
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      He addresses your point in the article if you cared to read the whole thing. Do you understand the fungibility of money? It doesn’t matter if your exact dollar bill goes directly to fund an abortion or if it funds something else so someone else’s undirected dollars fund the abortion. If you give money to a abortion provider, you are funding abortion. Period.

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      • August 10, 2016 at 11:19 am
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        “Do you understand the fungibility of money?”

        If that is the case then is his suggestion that we stop sending money to Israel?

        Israel has looser abortion laws than the US and it is fully paid for by their universal healthcare coverage.

        Mostly, PP gets funded the same way a medicare doctor gets funded, by billing the government for service provided.

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  • August 4, 2015 at 1:46 pm
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    Ron Paul passed up his taxpayer funded retirement; he passed up his pension. His retirement is entirely funded by his endeavors in the private sector.

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  • September 4, 2015 at 12:00 am
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    Thousands of migrants, most from North Africa and the Middle East, are storming an ineffective barricade . The current generation, at the behest of the statist political class and its enablers, is living on the backs of its children in the cynical name of safeguarding their interests.

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  • August 7, 2016 at 10:49 am
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    Preventing access to abortion results in increased medical spending for prenatal care, social services, hospital costs for delivery and postnatal care, pediatric care, vaccines, pediatric clinic and emergency room costs, qq is one of the main contributing factors to child abuse and neglect, the cost of obstetrical care, increase costs for education, including special ed, increased costs for domestic violence associated with unwanted pregancy from beginning to teen years, foster care costs; all paid for by the taxpayer. I am a pediatrician. These consequences of unwanted pregnancy are real.
    So, Dr. Paul, your argument for not funding Planned Parenthood does not hold water. The water always breaks, and we party for the flood.

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    • August 7, 2016 at 10:52 am
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      That is pay, not party, in the last sentence.

      Reply

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