What support the abortion industry lacks from grassroots Americans it tries to make up through the courts.
The abortion giant Planned Parenthood has filed dozens of lawsuits in the past several years to block pro-life legislation, including efforts to cut its taxpayer funding. And it may do so again with newly proposed cuts under the Trump administration.
The Hill reports Planned Parenthood and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association are considering lawsuits against a proposed rule to prohibit Title X family planning funds to groups that provide or refer for abortions. Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in America, receives about $60 million in Title X funds annually.
“We will absolutely consider all of our options and that does include litigation,” said Dr. Gillian Dean, a senior medical director at Planned Parenthood.
Clare Coleman, president of the reproductive health association, echoed this, saying, “We will seriously contemplate legal action as we’ve already had to do, and will do so in this case as well.”
Late last week, the Trump administration announced plans to introduce the “Protect Life Rule,” a Title X regulation similar to one introduced under President Ronald Reagan and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Under the proposal, Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses would not receive any Title X tax dollars unless they completely separate their abortion business from their taxpayer-funded services, The Washington Examiner reports. That would mean housing their family planning services elsewhere — potentially in separate buildings and coordinated by separate staff and organizations from its abortion enterprise.
Though the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Reagan-era rule, the abortion advocacy groups said they still may sue.
“This is not the same proposal as the Reagan administration made, and not the same set of issues of same jurisprudence from 35 years ago,” Coleman said.
The proposed rule has not been published yet.
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The United States spends about $260 million in Title X funds annually for family planning for low-income individuals, and Planned Parenthood is a huge recipient of those funds, receiving as much as $60 million annually.
The proposal comes amid strong pleas from grassroots Americans and members of Congress to defund the abortion giant. In April, 154 U.S. House members sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar asking for a rule to prohibit tax dollars from being use to promote abortions.
Title X funds are supposed to be used to help low-income women and men receive birth control, cancer screenings and other health care services. While the tax money cannot be used to pay for abortions, it indirectly funds Planned Parenthood’s vast abortion business.
The Trump administration has cut several other streams of funding to Planned Parenthood as well. Soon after Trump took office, he signed the Mexico City Policy to prevent the funding of groups that promote or perform abortions overseas. This includes the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which received tax dollars under the Obama administration.
In addition, in 2017, the Trump administration cut millions of dollars in grants to Planned Parenthood through the failed Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program. HHS spokesman Mark Vafiades told the New York Times last year that there is very little evidence that the program was successful. However, the abortion chain recently filed a lawsuit challenging the cuts.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in America, aborting approximately 320,000 unborn babies every year. Its most recent annual report showed a record income of $1.46 billion, with about half a billion dollars coming from taxpayers.
In December, the U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating whether the abortion chain illegally sold aborted baby body parts.
