The elevation of Rep. Tom Price to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is putting federal funding of Planned Parenthood into the GOP’s crosshairs.
Anti-abortion groups are praising President-elect Trump’s selection of the Georgia Republican to lead an agency that will set policy and regulations on abortion.
The prominent anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List praised Price, saying that he “helped lead the charge to defund Planned Parenthood through budget reconciliation,” according to group President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
Anti-abortion groups are hoping lawmakers will use a procedural move called reconciliation to defund Planned Parenthood. Reconciliation bypasses a Senate filibuster by only needing a simple majority vote, but can be used only for budget items.
Reconciliation was used last year in the Senate to pass a bill that gutted Obamacare and defunded Planned Parenthood. Republicans have sought to use a similar move to repeal Obamacare now that Trump would sign it into law.
Dannenfelser added that as HHS secretary Price would play a key role beyond defunding Planned Parenthood in “developing a robust healthcare reform proposal that protects life and consciences, while promoting options for low-income individuals and families.”
On the flip side, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said Price is a “grave threat to women’s health in this country.”
“From his plan to take no-copay birth control away from 55 million women and allow insurance companies to charge women more for the same health coverage, to his opposition to safe and legal abortion, Price could take women back decades,” Richards said.
A part of Obamacare requires insurers to fully cover birth control as a preventive measure. Price has issued legislation that would replace Obamacare with a system that provides tax credits to individuals seeking healthcare coverage outside their work based on age, as opposed to income, which is the case with Obamacare now.
Planned Parenthood criticized 2012 remarks from Price when he said “there wasn’t one woman” who doesn’t have birth control access.
“Bring me one woman who has been left behind,” he said during a video exchange back in 2012 with a reporter from ThinkProgress, a left-leaning website run by the think tank Center for American Progress.
Planned Parenthood pointed to a 2014 poll from Hart Research that said 71 percent of Americans want insurers to fully cover birth control. The poll was of 1,147 voters and completed in July 2010.
Price’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.
