Senate Votes Today to Allow States to Redirect Planned Parenthood Funding, Overturning Obama Exec Order

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 30, 2017
Contact: Mallory Quigley, [email protected], 202-223-8073

Vote Builds Momentum to Redirect Planned Parenthood’s Biggest Source of Taxpayer Funding via Reconciliation

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Senate will vote today on H.J. Res. 43 to overturn former President Obama’s rule concerning funding of abortion providers under the federal Title X family planning program. This will be the first abortion-related vote in the Senate since the 2015 vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to limit abortion after five months.

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

“Today the U.S. Senate has an historic opportunity to return to the people the right to prioritize taxpayer funding away from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business. Pro-life President Trump’s signature on this legislation will undo former President Obama’s parting gift to the abortion industry. Never again will the federal government thwart efforts by states that – acting on the will of the people – want to fund real women’s health care, not abortion,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.

“We thank Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Sen. Joni Ernst for their leadership to advance H.J. Res. 43 in the Senate. Today’s vote builds momentum for the effort to use reconciliation to redirect Planned Parenthood’s largest source of government funding, Medicaid, to the nationwide network of community health centers. These comprehensive health care entities outnumber the abortion chain by more than 20 to one nationwide.  The nation’s biggest seller of abortion – 323,999 abortions in a single year per their latest annual report – does not need or deserve taxpayer dollars.”

The Title X rule, issued shortly before President Obama left the White House, forbids states from defunding abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion business, and redirecting those family planning grants to comprehensive health care clinics.

Earlier this week, SBA List called on Congress to enact a new reconciliation bill that redirects taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood to community health care centers.

Last fall, Alliance Defending Freedom, Susan B. Anthony List, and Charlotte Lozier Institute filed comments with HHS opposing the rule.

A January 2017 poll found that a majority of voters in 2018 Senate battleground states oppose giving tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, instead of comprehensive healthcare providers. A majority in North Dakota, Montana, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Florida also said they would be less likely to vote for Senators who vote to keep sending tax dollars to the abortion giant.

Susan B. Anthony List and its connected super PAC, Women Speak Out spent more than $18 million in the 2016 election cycle, knocking on more than 1.1 million doors in battleground states to defeat Hillary Clinton and maintain a pro-life Senate. SBA List is dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women.  The SBA List is a network of more than 465,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.

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