Senator Marco Rubio Sponsors Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Apr 27, 2022   |   6:03PM   |   Washington, DC

New legislation by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio would strip tens of millions of Americans’ tax dollars from the nation’s largest abortion chain, Planned Parenthood.

Bloomberg Law reports the Florida Republican’s resolution would overturn a rule from President Joe Biden’s administration that allows abortion groups to receive tax dollars through the Title X family planning program.

“The Biden Administration’s rule is an assault on the most sacred and fundamental human right, the right to life,” Rubio said in a statement. “I will continue to protect the sanctity of life and do everything I can to make sure taxpayer dollars are not used for or promote abortions.”

The U.S. Senate may vote on the legislation this week, but it likely will not pass. Democrats narrowly control the chamber, and one Republican, pro-abortion Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, already said she will vote against it, according to Bloomberg.

The legislation would restore a pro-life rule for the Title X program created by President Donald Trump’s administration. Title X provides family planning services for low-income Americans and it is not supposed to be used to support abortions. However, prior to the Trump administration, Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups received tens of millions of tax dollars through the program every year.

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Rubio said the 2019 rule did not reduce Title X funding, it simply redirected tax dollars to health care providers that do not perform or promote aborting unborn babies.

His legislation has 36 co-sponsors, all Republicans, and major pro-life organizations, including the Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life, Family Research Council and Heritage Action, support it.

Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar abortion chain that aborts more unborn babies than any other group in the U.S. Its latest annual report, which is publicly available online, shows more than 354,000 abortions, about 40 percent of all abortions in the U.S. It also receives hundreds of millions of tax dollars every year.

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.”

Prior to 2019, however, Planned Parenthood was one of the largest recipients of Title X funding, receiving about $60 million a year. Under the Trump administration, the abortion chain chose to leave the program rather than comply with rules. Those rules required Title X recipients to make their abortion businesses physically and financially separate from the program and to stop referring women for abortions.

However, the Biden administration quickly reversed the rules in 2021, so that abortion facilities no longer have to separate their family planning services from their abortion businesses.

ACTION ALERT: Contact your senators to urge support for the bill. Contact U.S. Senators.