Only 51 votes stand between life and death for thousands of human beings this next year as roughly 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s funding hinges on a vote in the U.S. Senate.
Last week, the U.S. House approved a bill which, if passed by a simple majority of the Senate and signed by President Trump, would effectively defund Planned Parenthood’s federal Medicaid budget for one year. If the Senate is to truly represent its constituents and serve the American people, it will vote to defund America’s abortion corporation. And instead of leaving poor women in need, this bill will not only remove funding from abortion chain Planned Parenthood, but it will also reallocate medical funding dollars, making funding available to the thousands of federally-funded comprehensive health care clinics in the nation who serve women without killing their children.
Planned Parenthood constantly argues that its government dollars do not go for abortion, but the bottom line is that when the nation’s number one abortion corporation receives a half a billion dollars of taxpayer funding, it’s impossible to separate that from its abortion services. The data may appear in a different column, making it appear that abortions weren’t covered with taxpayer money, but financial fungibility is still a reality. Having millions of dollars in taxpayer money frees up the rest of Planned Parenthood’s money to cover abortion, letting the abortion giant dance around the allocation of every dollar and cent, knowing every other service will be reimbursed from Medicaid and other funding sources.
Imagine the many services at Planned Parenthood associated with an abortion. Besides the abortion procedure, there is the exam, the pregnancy test, any medicines, tests, medical care apart from the procedure, follow-up care, and the list goes on. The majority of these services are not technically prohibited from being covered by federal funding, so Planned Parenthood can evade rules and still use taxpayer dollars to enable abortions. (This is not to mention all the Medicaid fraud in billing that multiple states have discovered at Planned Parenthood facilities.) Planned Parenthood is a master of itemization, evasion, and corruption, and this is a vital reason the abortion corporation must stop receiving taxpayer money immediately.
Last week at the annual Susan B. Anthony Gala, Vice President Mike Pence renewed the Trump administration’s commitment to end funding for Planned Parenthood. In his speech, Pence addressed the then upcoming vote in the House:
This President is unwavering — he is unwavering in his commitment to defend life and protect women and children… Congress is going to vote to repeal and replace Obamacare. And when they vote to repeal and replace Obamacare, we will finally defund Planned Parenthood.
When it comes to Obamacare, I don’t have to remind anyone in this room that this is why Obamacare has got to go… [It] has allowed taxpayer money to be used to purchase health insurance that covers abortion, among all of its other failings. The day Obamacare passed was also — it was a day of disappointment for the sanctity of life. But hope is finally shining through. The bill before the Congress actually eliminates Obamacare’s abortion expansion and it defunds Planned Parenthood, and keeps the President’s promise to devote those resources to healthcare providers that help women without promoting abortion.
Now the Senate must take on the defunding of Planned Parenthood, where a simple majority will be enough to get a bill through. As Live Action News reported after passage in the House:
Since the defunding is coming through a reconciliation bill, 51 votes will be needed for passage in the Senate. The defunding will redirect approximately 80 percent of the abortion chain’s taxpayer funding and send it to the comprehensive health care centers around the nation that outnumber Planned Parenthood by the thousands.
Currently, Planned Parenthood receives roughly $553 million in government funding annually (amounting to $1.5 million per day), and the omnibus budget bill would have continued this. However, the reconciliation bill passed today would reverse the huge majority of the abortion chain’s funding for one year. Out of Planned Parenthood’s $553 million taxpayer dollars, roughly $450 million comes from Medicaid, 90 percent of which comes from the federal government. Thus, the cut in the reconciliation bill amounts to approximately 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s total government funding.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy(R-CA) said, “[The health-care bill] will do what is right by stopping taxpayer funding for abortions and refocusing Medicaid on those who most need it.”
And SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said defunding Planned Parenthood is a “non-negotiable”:
The bill redirects taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, to health care centers that provide comprehensive primary and preventative care to women and girls.
Since money will still be available to serve poor and uninsured women, this is not an issue of women losing access to primary or reproductive health care, as Planned Parenthood’s scare tactics assert. With thousands of federally-funded health care clinics across the nation — compared with only a few hundred Planned Parenthood facilities — women in need will be better served when the nation defunds the corrupt abortion chain and stops mixing taxpayer funds with abortion.
It behooves the U.S. Senate to look beyond the scare tactics and hyperbole perpetuated by the abortion industry and look at the numbers, which show that women will be better served, and taxpayers funds will be better spent, when the nation’s abortion leader isn’t sucking the life out of government funds and out of women’s wombs.
Editor’s Note: For more information on the common abortion procedures in the U.S., go here. For abortion reversal information, go here.
