Cutting Planned Parenthood Funding Could Cost Taxpayers $130 Million

Fiscal Times

By Eric Pianin
September 24, 2015

It’s not as if Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other congressional Tea Party conservatives care much about this, but their efforts to slash funding for Planned Parenthood could cost taxpayers millions.

The Congressional Budget Office informed the House Republican leadership this week that permanently defunding Planned Parenthood would end up costing the government $130 million over the coming decade, largely because it would result in more unplanned pregnancies and births as some low-income women lose access to contraception and family planning services provided by the beleaguered health care organization. And those unwanted pregnancies and births would put added pressure on federal social services.

While the cut in federal subsidies to the organization would save $520 million in the short-term, according to CBO, the overall cost to the government would increase to $650 million over the coming decade – or a net increase of $130 million. As part of its analysis, CBO took into account Republican proposals to redistribute the Planned Parenthood funds to other health providers that don’t offer abortion services.

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The administration and independent financial experts estimated that the 16-day government shutdown two years ago cost the economy billions of dollars and seriously disrupted government services to millions of Americans and business activities.

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With no way of knowing whether Congress can overcome the current crisis, the administration has ordered agencies to begin preparing for the worst, according to The Washington Post. That would mean, among other things, preparing to shutter Yellowstone National Park and 407 other federal parks across the country; furloughing of hundreds of thousands of “non-essential” federal workers; cutting back Social Security Administration services and curtailing the activities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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