Lawmakers praise Trump move to cut Planned Parenthood funding: ‘Abortion is not family planning’

Members of the House of Representatives spoke out today in favor of President Trump’s new Title X regulations, which will force abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood to disassociate their abortion business from their birth control sales in order to continue receiving funding. Planned Parenthood stands to lose $50-60 million annually because of this change, given its previously expressed unwillingness to separate abortion from its legitimate healthcare services.

This change will require Title X funding recipients to document that they have complied with state laws regarding reporting instances of sexual assault. Planned Parenthood currently has a very poor track record of reporting potential sexual abuse, rape, and incest, frequently returning victims to their abusers after their abortions.

This “Protect Life Rule,” according to the Weekly Standard, “will not not prohibit counseling for clients about abortion, but neither will it include the current, potentially illegal mandate that projects must counsel and refer for abortion.” As can be seen in the video below from OBGYN and former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino, abortion is not healthcare:

2nd Trimester Surgical Abortion: Dilation and Evacuation (D & E)

Some members of Congress who had previously requested these changes (along with 149 other Congress members) reacted today to the news that these changes will be implemented.

Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) is co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and was a featured speaker at the 2018 March for Life. Rep. Smith has also authored three anti-trafficking laws along with anti-child exploitation laws. Smith stressed that “abortion is not family planning,” and praised the Trump administration’s changes, stating, “President Trump’s new Protect Life Rule at long last reinstates principles first put forward under the Reagan Administration, and upheld by the Supreme Court nearly three decades ago. The Reagan Rule reinstated by the current Administration finally creates a bright line of separation between abortion and family planning. Abortion is not family planning – in sharp contrast, the violence of abortion wounds families.”

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), a longtime supporter of pro-life legislation including the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and conscience protections for healthcare workers, and a member of the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, expressed similar sentiments (emphasis added):

The Protect Life Rule is about choice. Planned Parenthood can stop performing abortions or stop receiving family planning funding. For too long the abortion giant has utilized Title X funding—up to $60 million annually—to further their core mission of destroying unborn human life. The 1970 program is in dire need of reform, and today’s actions lead the way in redirecting the same amount of taxpayer dollars from the abortion industry to actual health care providers. It’s time our hard-earned tax dollars go to actually helping women, not enabling the taking of innocent life.

I am heartened that the Trump Administration is putting forward new regulations to clear up any misunderstanding: abortion is not family planning, and the abortion industry should not be the recipient of taxpayer funded family planning programs. This proposed rule will distinguish between health care facilities that provide family planning services and clinics whose business models promote, facilitate, and perform the inhumane act of abortion.

“Abortion is not women’s healthcare or family planning,” echoed Congressman Diane Black (R-Tenn.), a nurse who has long fought to defund Planned Parenthood. Rep. Black, who reintroduced the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 217) four years ago in an attempt to disqualify abortion providers from receiving Title X federal grants, said, “The integrity of taxpayer dollars should never be in question, let alone specified funding for Title X Family Planning Program recipients. I’m proud to stand with the Trump Administration to ensure that our money is funding actual family planning programs, and not the abortion industry. Abortion is not women’s healthcare or family planning — it’s family destruction.”

Congressman Ron Estes (R-Kan.) called the Trump administration’s move “a great victory for life and the millions of people who have spoken loud and clear about not wanting federal tax dollars used for abortions.” Polling from January 2018 shows that six in 10 Americans are against taxpayer funding of abortion. Estes added, “I want to thank my colleagues for joining our efforts to secure these needed regulations and thank the Trump administration for heeding our call. These new regulations will save lives and ensure Title X funding supports actual family planning services instead of abortion providers.”

As expressed by these Congress members, abortion — the deliberate killing of a human being in the womb — is not healthcare or family planning. And taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it.