Let us mourn for poor Planned Parenthood of Orange County and San Bernadino, now that the Board of Supervisors has voted to end the approximately $300,000 subsidy the abortion mill is now receiving from the county.

And somehow denying this subsidiy to this politically powerful, well-connected non-profit with an annual budget in the neighborhood of $25 million, is going to lead to more teenage pregnancies and STDs.

Right.

Planned Parenthood advocates try to frame the issue as "public health" v. "ideology" -- which is convenient for them. it's also a false choice, because Planned Parenthood is shot through with ideology. It springs from an ideology.

One young woman who urged the Supes not end the funding noted growing up, her family's culture inhibited to discussion of sex, and therefore she was glad Planned Parenthood stepped in to provide her with sex education information.

That is an ideology: if the parent's choose not to talk to their children about sex -- or talk about it in a way deemed insufficient -- then tax-dollars should be used to step in and provide children with infromation their parents don't want to give them. And it is representative of what the pro-Planned Parenthood speakers had to say yesterday.

So to portray this issue as "public health v. ideology" or "science v.religion" is dishonest and blind.

It's worth noting that Planned Parenthood is not some meek, shoe-string neighborhood clinic just scraping by on moxie and luck. It is a juggernaut that is actively engaged in the political arena. Last November, it spent $100,000 in Santa Ana Unified School District alone, in an effort to elected ideologically-sympatico trustees.

I ask readers: what interest is so compelling that Planned Parenthood -- through is PAC -- would spend that kind of money in a single school district campaign? I can't see anything other than the desire to reach future customer base among SAUSD's female student population.

On a side note, I noticed Florice Hoffman addressed the board, saying she was the Democratic Party of Orange County, and identifying herself as a mom and a PTA officer. Too bad she didn't add she was also the recipient of several thousand dollars in Planned Parenthood PAC money in her failed run for Orange Unified School Board.

Again, kudos to the Board of Supes on this vote.