In one of the most heartbreaking moments of 2017 for the pro-life movement, last summer, Congress came within a single vote of what would have been a historic pro-life victory: stripping abortion giant Planned Parenthood of taxpayer funding that ought to go to comprehensive healthcare alternatives instead.
The reconciliation bill had already passed in the House of Representatives. Senate leadership was fully on board. We also had the support of the president, who made redirecting tax dollars away from Planned Parenthood one of his key commitments to pro-life voters. If any one of the three Republican senators who voted against the bill had voted differently, this promise would have been fulfilled.
One vote was all it took to put that hope out of reach indefinitely. At SBA List, we came away from this setback with even greater resolve to make sure a lost opportunity like this never happens again. Our canvassers are hard at work to reach two million battleground-state voters at their homes before Election Day, to restore and strengthen the Senate’s pro-life majority.
Meanwhile, pro-lifers should know that administrative options exist to help American taxpayers get out of the abortion business; the pathway runs through agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services.
Planned Parenthood’s second-largest source of taxpayer funding is the Title X Family Planning Program. In theory, Planned Parenthood and other organizations that promote abortion on demand shouldn’t be eligible for Title X grants, since abortion is neither “family planning” nor healthcare. The Title X statute recognizes this fact by stating program funding shall not be used in “programs where abortion is a method of family planning.” In practice, there’s an enormous loophole: Clinton-era rules require all grantees to refer for abortions and allow abortion facilities to be co-located within Title X clinics.
The Trump administration has the power to change this. It can issue Title X regulations that would restore Reagan-era policy by closing these loopholes. This change would force Planned Parenthood to make a choice between its abortion activities and a major revenue stream that sends the organization approximately $50 to $60 million dollars a year.
At no point in history has the mandate to redirect Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding been clearer than it is now. The last several years of Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports tell the story of an organization in rapid decline. Non-abortion services are down substantially. Client numbers have fallen by 20 percent as women seek out better options for non-abortion services. Dozens of facilities have closed — in some cases, at the same time a community health center or other comprehensive healthcare provider moves into the neighborhood. Two of the only figures that aren’t trending downward at Planned Parenthood are the number of abortions — holding steady at more than 320,000 a year — and their income, which hit a record high in 2017.
Brave undercover investigators have exposed the abortion-centered business model and the dearth of real healthcare services at Planned Parenthood, as well as the brutal reality of the systematic dismemberment of unborn children that occurs there. Congress established the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives to look into possible criminal activity, and now Planned Parenthood faces federal investigation for their role in the harvest and sale of aborted babies’ organs for profit.
Yet, inexplicably, Planned Parenthood remains funded to the tune of more than half a billion dollars a year. The disappointment of the pro-life community nationwide at Congress’ failure to follow through on this key promise cannot be overstated. It has the potential to dampen turnout at the polls this November at a time when the other side is fired up.
New Title X regulations give us the best chance of making significant progress in the fight to end taxpayer support for the abortion industry – and of firing up the grassroots ahead of the midterm elections.
Marjorie Dannenfelser is president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List.
