And let the great debate begin.

Welcome to Mass Ave.

This week is apparently Women's Health Week, and so we've had Planned Parenthood coming out saying why it's so crucial for taxpayer dollars to continue to go to the organization.

Fortunately, we have Melanie Israel here.

She's been looking closely at Planned Parenthood funding, and she can kind of give us an idea of what Planned Parenthood does and doesn't do.

So, Melanie, give us an overview.

Sure.

So, first of all, we have to be very, very clear that Planned Parenthood is the face of the abortion industry.

When you think of abortion, your mind immediately goes to Planned Parenthood is the face of the abortion industry. When you think of abortion, your mind

immediately goes to Planned Parenthood. The two go hand in hand. And so that's what so much of the

conversation about defunding Planned Parenthood has been focused on, has been the organization's

abortion work. So that's definitely something that we're hearing a lot about here during

Women's Health Week. It was reported in the recent funding bill that Planned Parenthood

was continued to be funded at current levels. Could you expand upon that a little bit?

Sure, sure. So, of course, ultimately, the way to defund Planned Parenthood is to pass a bill like the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would say no tax dollars are going to go to the abortion industry. Right now, the law says that tax dollars can't directly pay for abortion. Most abortions, I should say, thanks to what's called the Hyde Amendment. And so

Planned Parenthood often points to that as a reason for it to keep its funding by saying that

your tax dollars aren't directly funding abortion. They're funding other services that

Planned Parenthood provides. And of course, that argument really doesn't hold water. Money is fungible. So any money that

Planned Parenthood is getting is helping to prop up all of its services, whether it's directly or indirectly.

So unfortunately, once again, government funding bill provides for money for Planned Parenthood.

Congress would have to pass the no-taxpayer

funding for abortion act to ensure that that can't happen anymore.

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