Lawmakers accused Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday of removing protections in her $3 trillion coronavirus bill preventing cash flow to Planned Parenthood.
The House Democrats’ HEROES Act, the most recent coronavirus relief package proposal, includes language that removes taxpayer safeguards in the Paychecks Protection Program (PPP) that previously disqualified Planned Parenthood from receiving aid, they said.
These safeguards were previously added by President Donald Trump’s administration to block Planned Parenthood from receiving coronavirus aid.
“Not content with giving a special bailout for Washington lobbyists, Pelosi seems determined to rip up a bipartisan compromise on a vital small-business aid program in order to funnel billions to the abortion industry,” a senior administration official told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday.
“President Trump has been working tirelessly to provide relief to America’s working men and women, while protecting the unborn,” the official added. “Once again, we’re seeing that the Left will do whatever it takes to force their radical agenda on the American people, even leveraging a global pandemic.”
“The Paycheck Protection Program is for small businesses,” Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse told the DCNF. “There’s nothing small about Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion business. Nancy Pelosi shouldn’t try to shovel cash to Big Abortion’s corporate lobbyists while Americans suffer.”
Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton also criticized the Democratic House speaker, noting that her “1,800-page wish list includes a big payout for the abortion lobby.”
“The Democrats want the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, to qualify for taxpayer money meant for small businesses, churches, and charities,” Cotton added. “Congress ought to devote every cent of federal funding to life-saving causes, instead of paying off purveyors of death.”
Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks told the DCNF that “Speaker Pelosi is working overtime for her donors in the abortion industry.”
Pelosi is demanding that taxpayers who are already suffering financially must “fork over cash” to abortion providers, Banks continued.
“I can’t believe I need to spell this out for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but cash-strapped Americans don’t want to pay for abortions, send cash to illegal immigrants or have their hard-earned cash used to subsidize coastal elites or failing blue state pension systems,” the Indiana congressman said.
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The HEROES Act also appears to categorize abortion clinic workers as “essential,” by defining essential workers as those who work in “physician offices, community health centers, rural health clinics and other clinics, hospital outpatient departments, freestanding emergency departments, ambulatory surgical centers, and other related settings.”
Pelosi’s “$3 trillion wish list” is not about helping those suffering from the pandemic, March for Life Action president Tom McClusky told the DCNF in a statement.
“It is an election scheme focused on helping pro-abortion Democrats win in 2020,” he said. “Her proposal includes the removal of safeguards in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that prevent taxpayer money from bailing out the billion-dollar abortion-giant Planned Parenthood — an organization which has dedicated $45 million this cycle to electing pro-abortion politicians, like Pelosi, who will do their bidding.”
“The bill would also allow federal tax dollars to pay for abortions through subsidized health care plans,” McClusky added. “And, at the state and local level, it authorizes over $900 billion in open-ended funding — so nothing would prevent this money from further subsidizing the abortion industry. This bill would be [a] disaster for the unborn.”
Pelosi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
LifeNews Note: Mary Margaret Olohan writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience.
