Joe Biden Overturns Trump’s Pro-Life Rule Defunding Planned Parenthood of $60 Million

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 4, 2021   |   5:11PM   |   Washington, DC

Joe Biden just overturned a pro-life rule President Trump put in place that cut $60 million in funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business. Biden claims he’s a “devout Catholic” but he’s really just the most pro-abortion president in America’s history.

Today, the Biden administration formally adopted a rule that will force taxpayers to fund the abortion industry through the Title X family planning program.

The rule, issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will end a pro-life regulation that President Donald Trump put in place to ensure Title X grants are not used to subsidize the killing of unborn babies in abortions.

Because of Trump’s action, Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups left the program, choosing to prioritize abortions over actual health care. Planned Parenthood, a major recipient of Title X funds prior to Trump’s rule, was defunded of about $60 million.

Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood director and founder of And Then There Were None, slammed Biden in comments to LifeNews.com.

“Abortion clinics and those clinics that refer for abortion should never receive taxpayer funding. Polling indicates most Americans agree with this. If abortion advocates want government out of their bedroom, then they should stop taking government money,” she said.

Johnson added: “While Title X money should not go to clinics that refer for abortion, Planned Parenthood and their allies are experts at getting around this minor rule and now, thanks to Biden and all those who voted for him, they no longer need to hide it. Women deserve better than abortion and they certainly deserve better than going to clinics that see them only as a number to pad their bottom line.”

“From day one, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have worked to pay back the abortion lobby that spent millions to elect them,” Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser said previously. “President Trump’s Protect Life Rule respected both the plain statutory language of Title X and the strong majority of Americans who oppose using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion on demand. Abortion is not ‘family planning’ and Biden-Harris Democrats pursue this extreme, unpopular agenda at their political peril.”

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Title X funds are not supposed to be used for abortions. The program provides family planning services to low-income individuals, and the law states that Title X grants may not be used “where abortion is a method of family planning.”

Trump’s rule made it even more clear that Title X recipients cannot refer women for abortions or provide abortions, thus ensuring tax dollars are not used to support the killing of unborn babies.

But Biden’s rule will allow abortion companies to begin receiving the funding again and allow them to refer Title X patients for abortions.

Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, policy advisor for The Catholic Association, told LifeNews that the Biden rule would undo important, life-saving progress in America.

“The newly proposed Title X rule fails to recognize that abortion has never been an accepted method of family planning” Christie said. “[It] would result in tens of millions of taxpayer dollars being once again funneled to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, when polls consistently show that U.S. taxpayers do not want to underwrite this life-ending procedure.”

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, expressed similar concerns to NPR, saying abortion groups could use the money to encourage women to consider abortion.

“The agency that is getting the Title X funding can refer for abortion and tell [women], ‘Oh and by the way, we do abortions in this same facility if you want to set up the appointment,’” Tobias said.

The Trump administration rule, the subject of a current U.S. Supreme Court case, prohibits Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from receiving Title X tax dollars unless they completely separate their abortion businesses from their taxpayer-funded services. That mean housing their family planning services in separate buildings with separate staff from their abortion businesses. It also prohibits referrals for elective abortions.

A recent Marist poll found that, by a double-digit margin, a majority of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion (54 percent to 39 percent).