Planned Parenthood is one step closer to losing its federal funding, thanks to the Trump administration.
The abortion giant has chosen to stop tapping into Title X family planning funds after Congress approved a sweeping bipartisan budget that reinforces and tightens the Hyde Amendment, a law that prohibits organizations from receiving tax dollars if they provide abortions. Planned Parenthood has vowed to challenge the restrictions in court, arguing it can still receive Title X dollars until the courts decide what to do.
But the Trump administration is laying down the law: The Department of Health and Human Services has given Planned Parenthood until Monday to comply with its regulations or completely exit the family planning program.
Planned Parenthood must demonstrate “good faith efforts” to comply with the rules of the program and submit an “action plan” describing how it will do so, or face federal regulation. This means that if it wants to be a part of the Title X family planning program, Planned Parenthood must stop providing and referring women to abortions.
“The Title X Protect Life Rule draws a bright line of separation between abortion and family planning to ensure that taxpayers are protected from subsidizing abortions. Planned Parenthood’s refusal to comply with this simple regulation demonstrates yet again just how committed they are to performing abortions – they commit over 300,000 every year,” Mallory Quigley, the vice president of communications for the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List told the Washington Examiner.
This wouldn’t be a problem if Planned Parenthood wasn’t completely dependent on and primarily dedicated to its abortion services. The organization has long tried to argue its priority is providing essential health services, such as vaccinations, HIV tests, and well-woman exams. But if that were true, its board wouldn’t have ousted Leana Wen, Planned Parenthood’s former president, who tried to rehabilitate its image by making non-abortive services its focus. They tossed her and her reasonable intentions out the back door.
“Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry have treated Title X as their own slush fund with little return for taxpayers or the populations they are supposed to serve,” Quigley said. “While Planned Parenthood’s abortions have increased or remained steady, its non-abortion services including contraceptive services and already limited cancer screenings have declined dramatically over the last decade. Planned Parenthood has run to the courts to protect their Title X funding, but we are confident that the regulation will be upheld, just like a similar Reagan-era rule was upheld by the Supreme Court. This will be a great victory delivered by President Trump for the majority of Americans who reject taxpayer funding of abortion.”
The HHS’s order fulfills the decades-long promise Republicans have failed to keep. President Trump, a man of very little conviction, seems to be more pro-life than most of the Republicans sitting in Congress. But a win is a win, and the pro-life movement should celebrate every victory that comes its way.
