Taxpayer Funding for Abortions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump’s administration has finalized an administrative rule to revise the regulations governing the Title X family planning program and to restrict taxpayer dollars for groups such as Planned Parenthood that provide abortion referrals. This new rule means the defunding of the Planned Parenthood abortion business by as much as $60 million in Title X funds annually. The rule, first proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services last year, would ban organizations from providing abortions if they are performed in the same facilities as other services financed by federal funds. It would also block funding for organizations that refer women to another provider for the procedure.

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Title X funds are supposed to be used to help low-income women and men receive birth control, cancer screenings and other health care services. While the tax money cannot be used to pay for abortions, it has indirectly funded Planned Parenthood’s vast abortion business. The rule revives “The Protect Life Rule” which President Ronald Reagan signed in 1988. Reagan’s effort to directs tax dollars to entities that provide health care to women but do not perform abortions was tied up in court and was ultimately overturned in the first days of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Last May, the Trump administration published a new proposal for Title X that would prohibit Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from receiving any of those 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 and a denial of funds if they fail to do so. Existing grantees have 60 days to come into compliance with the prohibition on abortion referral and the requirement to separate financially from abortion activities, and one year to comply with the requirement for physical separation from abortion activities. “I commend President Trump for his commitment to protect the sanctity of human life, the rights of conscience, and religious freedom by revising the regulations for the Title X family planning program,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No one should be forced to violate their conscience and sincerely-held religious beliefs, and taxpayers should not be forced to fund the killing of unborn babies.”

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