ARLINGTON, VA (July 13, 2016) — Statement from Lila Rose, president and founder of the national pro-life organization Live Action, on the Republican Party Platform Committee adopting platform language that calls for defunding Planned Parenthood:
“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to support Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion chain that commits over 320,000 abortions each year. While the American people are told their money doesn’t go to fund abortions, the billions in taxpayer funding Planned Parenthood has collected over the years has freed up money elsewhere in its budget, allowing it to build more abortion facilities and buy more abortion equipment.
“In addition to the heart-wrenching fact that Planned Parenthood takes over 320,000 innocent lives each year, the abortion giant has been caught in one scandal after another, from covering up for pimps sex trafficking 13-year-old girls, to encouraging mothers to abort their baby girls in favor of having boys, to the barbaric practice of harvesting and trafficking the body parts of the precious babies it aborts.
“Any of these atrocities alone should have disqualified Planned Parenthood from receiving one dime from taxpayers, but the abortion giant gets constant cover from its friends in Washington. Planned Parenthood receives over a half billion dollars each year from taxpayers, then gives back millions in campaign contributions to those politicians who vote to keep the money flowing. This corrupt cycle of campaign contributions in return for forced taxpayer support must stop.”