Last week the Trump administration took decisive action on the president’s pledge to disentangle taxpayers from the abortion industry, delivering a policy win that promotes better health care alternatives for women and may save countless lives.
The Protect Life Rule stops taxpayer funding of abortion through the Title X family planning program. Most Americans agree that abortion is not family planning and oppose taxpayer-funded abortion. The Protect Life Rule does not cut a single dollar from family planning. It instead 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. There are already more than 3,000 Title X service sites nationwide – including state and county health departments, community health centers, and nonprofit clinics – where women and families are already accessing comprehensive preventative and primary care, not abortion.
For too long, abortion businesses – chief among them Planned Parenthood – have exploited Title X as though it were their own private bank account. Since the Clinton era, all Title X grantees have been required to refer for abortion, and service sites have been allowed to carry out abortions on the same premises and keep their taxpayer funding. Planned Parenthood has been receiving $50 million-$60 million in Title X funds annually and more than half of its service sites provide abortion at the same address. …
