President Trump releases budget defunding Planned Parenthood

Today, President Donald Trump released a presidential budget request for FY 2019. According to a 2017 article from ThoughtCo, every February, the annual federal budget process begins with the release of a presidential budget request to Congress:

The president’s budget proposal serves as a “starting point” for the Congress to consider. Congress is under no obligation to adopt all or any of the President’s budget and often makes significant changes. However, since the President must ultimately approve all future bills they might pass, Congress is often reluctant to completely ignore the spending priorities of the President’s budget.

Included in the president’s budget request on page 56 is the following section regarding the Title X Family Planning program and Medicaid, in which President Trump requests prohibiting federal funds from going to “certain abortion providers”:

Prohibits Certain Abortion Providers from Receiving Federal Funds. The Budget includes provisions prohibiting certain abortion providers from receiving Federal funds from HHS, including those that receive funding under the Title X Family Planning program and Medicaid, among other HHS programs.”

Last year, for FY2018, President Trump also requested to “eliminate[] funding for Planned Parenthood, including Medicaid reimbursements” — which did not happen — according to a previous Live Action News report. The president has made it clear that he is not a fan of the nation’s #1 abortion profiteer, Planned Parenthood, even signing a bill in 2017 allowing states to defund the organization.

Planned Parenthood provides little actual care to women and focuses primarily on providing abortions, committing more than 320,000 every year:

Planned Parenthood is shrinking, but abortions still increase

Planned Parenthood’s CEO Cecile Richards went so far as to refuse to discontinue abortions, even if it meant losing the abortion corporation’s more than half a billion dollars in federal funding every year.