Congressman Mike Pence dropped a bill in the hopper today in the House of Representatives that would revoke federal taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act ensures that taxpayer money authorized by the federal government for family planning efforts supposedly to reduce abortions don’t go to the nation’s biggest abortion business.
Last year alone, according to Planned Parenthood’s own annual report, it received more than $363 million in revenue from government grants and contracts. During that same timeframe, it did 324,008 abortions, a 5.8 percent increase from the previous year, which also set a record high at that time.
“It is morally wrong to end an unborn human life by abortion. It is also morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to promote abortion at home or abroad,” Pence said today on the House floor in introducing his bill.
“The largest abortion provider in America should not also be the largest recipient of federal funding under Title X,” he said. ““The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act will prevent any family planning funds under Title X from going to Planned Parenthood or other organizations that perform abortions. It will ensure that abortion providers are not being subsidized with federal tax dollars.”
More than 122 members of the House have signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation and pro-life groups are already on board pledging to pull out all the stops to get the bill through the House and give pro-life senators a chance to try to get a vote or attach it to other legislation. [related]
The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act would not reduce the total amount of funds available for family planning but would block funding to organizations that perform abortions, like Planned Parenthood — which does more than one-quarter of all abortions in the United States.
Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing comprehensive family planning and related preventative health services, and there are a number of federally funded clinics across the nation that offer beneficial services including patient counseling, breast cancer screenings, HIV prevention education and more.
The nation’s largest abortion provider is also under investigation in multiple states including Indiana, California, Alabama and Tennessee for allegations of fraudulent use of Title X funding.
