FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 4, 2012
Contact: Mallory Quigley, 202-223-8073
President Obama Ignores Will of Arizonans to Cut Off Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Providers
Washington, DC ─ Today, the national pro-life Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) slammed a brief filed by the Department of Justice aimed at overturning Arizona’s Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act (HB 2800). The law, co-authored by the SBA List and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), defunds abortion providers of state family planning funds. Family planning funds are prioritized away from abortion-centered businesses like Planned Parenthood to entities that provide comprehensive health care. Governor Jan Brewer signed HB 2800 into law in May. The law was challenged by Planned Parenthood and is before the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.
“While Planned Parenthood spends millions to re-elect President Obama and even sends its president, Cecile Richards, to campaign in Iowa this week, the Obama Administration once again is stepping in to protect the bottom line of its top political ally and the nation’s largest abortion provider,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Despite continued scandals including allegations of the waste, abuse, and potential fraud of millions of taxpayer dollars, President Obama has refused to allow a single tax dollar to be cut from Planned Parenthood at the federal level. When the states take matters into their own hands to protect taxpayers from funding the abortion industry, Obama’s administration promptly intervenes on the abortion business’ behalf.
“Arizona taxpayers have spoken through their elected representatives: they do not want their tax dollars going to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, which performs more than 330,000 abortions a year. The Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act is pro-woman legislation that recognizes that women deserve access to comprehensive health care, not abortion. Abortion is not health care.”
Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, which co-authored the legislation with the SBA List, are assisting state Solicitor General David Cole in the defense of the law after Planned Parenthood filed suit.
Earlier this year the SBA List joined the Center for Arizona Policy, Arizona Right to Life, and other local groups to host two “Women Speak Out: Defund Planned Parenthood” press conferences in front of local Planned Parenthood abortion clinics to draw attention to the organization’s abortion-centered business and calling for the passage of HB 2800. The press conferences came a day after Chuck Donovan, President of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the education and research arm of the SBA List, testified before the Arizona House Health Committee in favor of the bill.
The Susan B. Anthony List, and its connected Political Action Committee, the SBA List Candidate Fund, are dedicated to electing candidates and pursuing policies that will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List will emphasize the election, education, promotion, and mobilization of pro-life women. The SBA List is a network of more than 365,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.
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