Evangelical Christian leader Franklin Graham praised President Donald Trump on Tuesday for ensuring that no coronavirus relief funds go to the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
Graham, the founder of Samaritan’s Purse and a strong voice for life in America, responded after the Trump administration confirmed to the Daily Caller that the aid money will go to small businesses, not the billion-dollar abortion chain.
“Thank you President Donald J. Trump for making sure that no COVID-19 recovery funds from the Paycheck Protection Program are going to Planned Parenthood,” Graham wrote Tuesday on Facebook. “Money from this program should go to the many small businesses needing help to stay afloat because of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar abortion chain that aborted more than 345,000 babies last year. It does more abortions than any other entity in the United States.
Graham noted the extent of its destructive practices in his comments Tuesday, citing current abortion estimates for 2020.
“Although there have been more than 68,000 deaths attributed to the coronavirus in the United States, more than 295,000 babies have lost their lives to abortion in the U.S. this year alone,” he wrote Tuesday. “No part of taxpayer money or any kind of stimulus funds should go to this organization that exists to take life, not save life.”
In April, Congress allotted $2.4 trillion in aid for the global health crisis through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, The Blaze reports. The spending package includes $349 billion for small businesses.
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Businesses may qualify for the funds if they have fewer than 500 employees, and pro-lifers expressed concerns about abortion facilities being able to qualify for that money. Planned Parenthood as a whole employs more than 16,000 people in the U.S., but its local affiliates could meet the under-500 limit, prompting the concerns, according to the report.
“The interim final rule made crystal clear that an organization with Planned Parenthood’s corporate structure doesn’t qualify,” the official continued. The aid package “has regulations called ‘affiliation rules’ to define when small employers might be so closely affiliated with a parent organization that they should be considered one large employer.”
The Trump administration defended the action, noting that there is “broad bipartisan support” for limits on taxpayer funding for abortions. Polls consistently find strong opposition to taxpayer-funded abortions.
It is just one of many ways the Trump administration has blocked taxpayer funding to the abortion industry.
On Tuesday, Graham urged people to join him in praying for America and “for President Trump as he faces so many challenges and difficult decisions every day.”
