Extremist Democrats Sue to Block President Trump’s Protect Life Rule

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2019
CONTACT: Mallory Quigley
[email protected] | 202-223-8073

SBA List Confident the Trump Administration Will Prevail

Washington, D.C. – Twenty states, the District of Columbia, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) have announced they are suing to block the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule, which redirects Title X family planning program funds away from the abortion industry. Finalized last month, the rule advances President Trump’s promise to stop taxpayer funding of abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, who will no longer receive Title X funding if they choose not to comply.

The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) released the following statement in response:

“For years abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, which ends the lives of more than 332,000 unborn children a year, have treated the Title X program like their own multimillion-dollar slush fund,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Now, Planned Parenthood’s allies are running to court to ensure taxpayers are forced to continue filling the coffers of the abortion industry. Contrary to pro-abortion misinformation, the Protect Life Rule does not cut Title X funding by a single dime – it simply enforces the existing statute that draws a bright line of separation between abortion and family planning. President Trump and Secretary Azar acted on the will of the American people by disentangling taxpayers from the big abortion industry. Similar regulations have already been upheld by the Supreme Court and we are confident the Trump administration will prevail.”

A Marist poll last month showed a dramatic shift in how Americans identify on the abortion issue in recent weeks: 34 percent of Democrats identify as pro-life, 61 percent pro-choice (compared to 20 percent and 75 percent last month, respectively). The poll also found that among voters under the age of 45, 47 percent identify as pro-life and 48% pro-choice (compared to 28 percent and 65 percent last month, respectively). A previous Marist poll in January of this year found that, by a double-digit margin, a majority of all Americans oppose any taxpayer funding of abortion (54 percent to 39 percent).

Under the Protect Life Rule abortion centers cannot serve as taxpayer-funded family planning centers (“co-location”). In addition, Title X locations cannot refer for abortion. The Protect Life Rule does not prohibit Title X providers from providing neutral, nondirective counseling about abortion and does not prevent anyone from obtaining Title X services. It does not reduce family planning funding by a dime. Instead, it directs tax dollars to Title X centers that do not promote or perform abortions, such as the growing number of community and rural health centers that far outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities. Similar regulations were upheld by the Supreme Court in 1991 in Rust v. Sullivan (500 U.S. 173).

SBA List is a network of more than 700,000 pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.

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