FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 19, 2018
Contact: Mallory Quigley, [email protected], 202-223-8073
HHS Rescinds Obama Policy on Taxpayer Funding for Planned Parenthood & Strengthens Federal Conscience Protections
Washington, D.C. – Today the Department of Health and Human Services announced two major pro-life policy initiatives. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rescinded an Obama-era letter that forbade states from redirecting state Medicaid funds away from abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. HHS’s Office for Civil Rights simultaneously announced a proposal to strengthen enforcement of federal conscience and religious freedom protections for Americans who do not want to be forced to participate in abortion.
This news comes ahead of President Trump’s historic address to participants at the March for Life which will be livestreamed from the Rose Garden.
Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) President Marjorie Dannenfelser praised these actions in a statement:
“President Trump and his administration have taken a monumental stand for conscience rights and an important step toward getting American taxpayers out of funding the abortion industry, especially Planned Parenthood. Despite reporting record income, Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services are in steep decline, clients are leaving, and dozens of facilities have closed. Meanwhile, the abortion chain does more than 320,000 abortion procedures per year, and they are under federal investigation for their role in the harvest and sale of aborted babies’ body parts for profit.
“We urge Congress to swiftly finish what this pro-life administration has started by passing the Conscience Protection Act and redirecting half a billion dollars in annual taxpayer funding away from Planned Parenthood. Abortion is not health care. No one should ever be forced to participate in the destruction of innocent unborn children, and Planned Parenthood does not need or deserve taxpayer dollars.”
In early 2017, President Trump signed legislation rolling back an Obama-era rule that prohibited states from redirecting Title X funds away from Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses. The law did not affect Medicaid, Planned Parenthood’s largest source of taxpayer funding.
Last fall 132 state legislators from 27 states signed a letter spearheaded by SBA List’s National Pro-life Women’s Caucus calling on the administration to swiftly issue new pro-life guidance.
Planned Parenthood controls more than 35 percent of the national market for abortions and is not a significant provider of medical care in the United States.
President Trump has made four specific commitments to the pro-life movement, including reallocating Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding to comprehensive, whole-woman health care centers.
Susan B. Anthony List and its partner 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 600,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.
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