Metro Council approves a half-million dollar grant to fund Planned Parenthood.

This should have been the scene outside the Metro
Courthouse last Tuesday.

by Rod Williams, Oct. 12, 2022- Last Tuesday, the Metro Council passed a resolution to appropriate $500,000 to Planned Parenthood for contraception services, family planning counseling, and sex education. 

Originally, the resolution was going to include funding for travel expenses for women in Davidson County so they could travel out of state to get an abortion. That provision was removed after Metro Legal expressed concern that it would threaten Title X funding. Title X prohibits government funds from being used for abortion. 

Don't be fooled by this.  Organizations do not have funds in neat little lock boxes and only one thing is funded out of one box and something else out of another box.  All funds keep the lights on and pay the rent. A half million dollars from Metro will allow Planned Parenthood to perform more abortions. 

The vote was 19 to 13. Here is how members voted:

Yes (19): Mendes, Suara, Toombs, Parker, Withers, VanReece, Syracuse, Welsch, Sledge, Cash, O'Connell, Roberts, Hausser, Murphy, Porterfield, Sepulveda, Styles, Lee, and Rosenberg; 

No (13): Allen, Hall, Swope, Hancock, Young, Evans, Bradford, Druffel, Pulley, Johnston, Nash, Vercher, and Rutherford; 

Abstain (3): Hurt, Gamble, and Henderson

Notice that this vote was not overwhelmingly lop-sided. Four more members voting "no" and it would have failed. It matters who governs.  

If outraged pro-life citizens would have called their council members urging them to vote "no," there might have been four members who would have switched their vote.  Citizen involvement matters.

In my view, we need State action to prohibit any unit of government in Tennesee from funding any organization that advocates for abortion or has a chapter in another state that performs or funds abortion. Cities are chartered by the State.  Cities do not have sovereignty.  They may only do those things the state allows them to do. The State of Tennessee needs to keep Metro Nashville on a short leash.

Funding for this grant came from the budget of 14 metro departments and the Metro Pay Plan. Metro Parks, the Nashville Public Library, the Department of Health, and the Nashville Department of Transportation each lost $60,000 and $90,000 came from the pay plan. If you local park looks shabby or your local library has long lines to check out a book, remember this. The next time elected officials cry that Nashville is broke and we need another whopping tax increase, don't buy it.  If Metro can grant $500,000 to Planned Parenthood, Metro has too much money.

To read the resolution see:  RS2022-1734. Stay tuned for more on this issue. 

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