At this point I’m sure everyone has had an email exchange, phone call, or face to face conversation with someone who has said that they really wish the Title X defunding had just gone through because it’s not right that their tax dollars are spent on abortions.

But now you can consider yourself armed with the facts.  The Washington Post has published the top five myths about Planned Parenthood being perpetuated currently, and what the real story is behind each.

I thought I knew a lot about Planned Parenthood, but even I was surprised be all of the info in #1.

1. Planned Parenthood’s federal funding frees up other money to pay for abortions.

Opponents of Planned Parenthood insist that giving the organization federal dollars allows it to spend other money in its budget to provide abortions. That is not possible — there is no other money.

Title X is a federal grant program that exists solely to help low-income and uninsured people access contraceptives and sexual health care; 5.2 million people use the program annually. But Congress has never appropriated enough money to take care of the estimated 17 million Americans who need publicly funded family-planning care. There always are more patients than subsidies.

Further, a Title X grant is designed to help with costs, not to fully cover them. So family-planning programs are required to find other money to support the Title X project — not the other way around. For patients who qualify for Medicaid, reimbursement rates for reproductive health services are lower than the cost of the care. A typical family-planning visit might cost upward of $200, including the exam, lab tests and contraceptive method, but the Medicaid reimbursement rate may be as low as $20.

I am now prepared to be a full on debunking machine during the next family email chain.