| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 22, 2020 |
CONTACT: Mallory Quigley [email protected], 202-223-8073 |
Federal Funds Should NOT Be Used to Coerce States Into Funneling Tax Dollars to Abortion Businesses
Washington, D.C. – Today the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) granted the state of Texas a Medicaid waiver to fund the Healthy Texas Women program which does not include abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. This decision reverses the Obama administration’s decision to deny a similar waiver to the state in 2013. The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) responded in a statement:
“President Trump has repeatedly kept his promise to stop taxpayer funding of the big abortion industry including Planned Parenthood. Abortion is not health care,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “When Texas lawmakers exercised their right to fund women’s health care without underwriting abortion businesses, they were punished by the Obama administration and smeared by abortion activists and their media allies. But the nation’s largest abortion chain, Planned Parenthood, issued its annual report this month showing massive increases in both abortions and taxpayer funding at the same time they have seen steep declines in their number of patients, cancer screening and prevention services, breast exams, pap tests, and even contraceptive services. Restoring Texas’s decision regarding use of federal funds is an acknowledgement that the Lone Star State was right all along. We thank President Trump and Secretary Azar and urge them to immediately free all states to act on the will of their citizens to support women’s health care without encouraging abortion.”
In 2011 the Texas legislature enacted legislation to end state family planning funding for abortion businesses including Planned Parenthood. Effective in 2013, the Obama administration withdrew funding for Texas’s Medicaid family planning program funded by a similar waiver. While that administration could have approved the funding with the Texas policy favoring childbirth over abortion, they did not and instead withdrew federal support. Then-Governor Rick Perry pledged to fully fund the program using state dollars.
SBA List is a network of more than 837,000 pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.
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