Opinion: Could an abortion-providing spinoff save Planned Parenthood?

To the editor: The political power in Washington has shifted, but Planned Parenthood can take action to protect itself. (“Defunding Planned Parenthood hurts the healthcare system,” editorial, Jan. 7)

The Times stated that only 3% of about 2.5 million Planned Parenthood patient visits in 2014 were for abortion services. Planned Parenthood should conduct a cost-benefit analysis considering whether a loss of millions of patient visits is worth the 75,000 abortion visits, especially if an alternative is available.

A new independent charity could be established. Planned Parenthood would contribute all of its abortion services to the new organization and cease all of its abortion activities. The new organization would be funded only by charitable donations, some of which might otherwise go to Planned Parenthood. The new organization would not receive any public funds.

This presumes there are enough reasonable Republicans in Congress who would not vote to defund Planned Parenthood in this case.

Peter R. Pancione, Thousand Oaks

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To the editor: Grandstanding like the fuss over Planned Parenthood gets more headlines for lawmakers, which leads to knee-jerk campaign contributions from moralizing zealots, which lead to reelection. Solving the real problems of the country is hard work and could even require negotiation and actual compromise, and it gets fewer headlines.

Planned Parenthood is a 501(c)(3) organization, meaning that one’s voluntary contributions to it may be tax deductible. Why not let the zealots subsidize your charitable choices through the tax code the same way we ordinary citizens do for the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson now in other ways?

Let’s step up here and pick up some of the slack and send a statement to the moralizing zealots.

Richard Schmittdiel, Glendale

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