FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 6, 2016
Contact: Mallory Quigley, [email protected] 202-223-8073
Reconciliation Sets Pro-life Precedent for 2017, Obama’s Imminent Veto is a Reminder of the Importance of Electing a Pro-life President
WASHINGTON, D.C. – This evening the U.S. House passed historic budget reconciliation legislation that defunds Planned Parenthood and reallocates taxpayer dollars to comprehensive health care centers. Susan B. Anthony List, which led a coalition of pro-life groups encouraging Congress to use the reconciliation process to defund Planned Parenthood, offered the following comment:
“For the first time since America’s largest abortion business began receiving public funding – nearly five decades ago – the president will have to decide up or down on legislation to defund them. It is the first bill ever to get to the president’s desk that would achieve this longtime pro-life goal, and reallocate taxpayer funding to comprehensive health care centers,” said SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser.
“The reconciliation process established an important precedent for the next administration,” she continued. “If Americans elect a pro-life president this year, and safeguard our pro-life majorities in Congress, this bill – and many others – could be law by 2017.”
Numerous members of the House Pro-life Caucus spoke out in favor of the legislation:
“This is an important victory for the pro-life movement, as well as for conservatives all across the country who want to see the President confronted with a bill that not only guts Obamacare, makes him confront the problems that Americans are facing all around the country with his failed law, but also the ability then, to defund Planned Parenthood as well and have recorded votes in the House and Senate, but also have a bill on the President’s desk that he has to decide whether he’s going to sign or veto.” – Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-LA
“The vote that the House will take today is a victory for women’s health, while also serving as a cry to end the monstrous actions of an organization that continually attacks our precious, vulnerable unborn children…There are more than 13,500 publicly supported alternatives for women’s health care in this country and 588 in Missouri – alternatives that treat women without performing abortions.” – Rep. Ann Wagner, R-MO
“By [Planned Parenthood’s] own numbers, taxpayer funding for this organization is up, while preventive healthcare services are down, and abortions continue to stand at over 320,000 a year…We may not be able to change President Obama’s heart on this issue, goodness knows we’ve tried, but we can put him on record. If this President truly thinks that my constituents’ tax dollars should fund this scandal-ridden abortion giant, that’s on his conscience, but he should at least be forced to put pen to paper and explain that belief to the American people.” – Rep. Diane Black, R-NC
“We were all aghast over the recordings released highlighting Planned Parenthood selling of baby parts. As a Member who believes that individual, distinct life beings at conception, Planned Parenthood’s lack of remorse or even concern highlights their dark business. Today we send a bill to the President’s desk to defund Planned Parenthood.” – Rep. John Shimkus, R-IL
Prior to today’s vote, SBA List released a new fact sheet detailing the dramatic decline in Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services, despite the fact that taxpayer funding for the group is up nearly 5 percent from the previous fiscal year.
The Susan B. Anthony List and its Political Action Committees, the SBA List Candidate Fund and Women Speak Out PAC, spent $15.25 million in the 2014 election cycle to defeat pro-abortion incumbents and elect pro-life candidates to federal and statewide office. The 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 365,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.
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