It would be another major step in establishing a culture of human dignity and ensuring every citizen’s unalienable rights.
It would be another major step in establishing a culture of human dignity and ensuring that every citizen’s unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are recognized.
P lanned Parenthood Federation of America is responsible for ending nearly 400,000 preborn lives every year. It is the largest abortion provider in America — yet it receives $700 million of your taxpayer dollars annually.
President Trump and the new, Republican-controlled Congress have the opportunity to finally remove our taxpayer dollars from this pro-abortion organization. It’s what the American people want. In a Marist Poll conducted last month, 57 percent of Americans opposed the use of tax dollars to pay for abortion.
Over the last 15 years, there have been periodic debates about defunding Planned Parenthood. These were sparked, in part, by investigations that exposed the ghoulish practice of selling the body parts of aborted babies for profit. Yet Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding has increased by 43 percent since 2010, even under Republican leadership, while the majority of its non-abortive services continue to decline. And its practice of selling baby body parts continues, according to a recent report by the New York Post.
As the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy entity, I know our churches are strongly united on this issue. Southern Baptists are pro-life and oppose abortion because it ends an innocent human life, harms women, and contributes to a culture that devalues life. However, beyond the Southern Baptist Convention, Americans of many different faiths, people of no faith, and people across the political spectrum agree. If you look through the mountains of research and data about how Americans feel about Planned Parenthood, you will see that this debate is deeper than just pro-life vs. pro-choice.
In that same Marist Poll conducted last month, even a high number of self-identified pro-choice Americans (41 percent) opposed the use of tax dollars for abortion. Many Americans simply don’t want their taxpayer money to fund an organization that profits from the death of innocent lives and the exploitation of mothers, especially an organization with $2.1 billion in income and over $2.5 billion in net assets.
President Trump was elected to bring about substantive change. During the presidential campaign last year, then-Senator JD Vance affirmed the ticket’s desire to defund Planned Parenthood. There is no better way to do that than for Congress to redirect taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills to fund genuine women’s health care, pregnancy services, and programs that support moms and families. At a time when maternal mortality is on the rise in so many places, this is an easy choice.
A good example of how to proceed legislatively is the Protect Funding for Women’s Health Care Act, a bill authored by Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood. The goal should be to make it as simple and affordable to welcome a new child into the world as it was for Planned Parenthood to end a life in the Roe v. Wade era.
How is this moment different from previous national debates about Planned Parenthood’s funding? Because a reconciliation bill currently being crafted by Republicans presents a rare opportunity to make this goal a reality.
Reconciliation is a unique legislative tool that makes a bill easier to pass in the Senate, and it can only be used to change federal budget spending or revenues. Instead of the normal 60 votes required to overcome the filibuster, a reconciliation bill only needs a simple majority in the Senate.
While the Hyde Amendment prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to cover abortion, Planned Parenthood still receives significant federal and state Medicaid reimbursements and direct government grants. This is ostensibly to assist with other procedures, like prenatal care and cancer screenings — but these are a shrinking part of Planned Parenthood’s budget. Though taxpayer dollars cannot go directly to abortion, these funds allow abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood, to free up other resources to provide abortions.
Donald Trump’s first term led to historic policy wins for the pro-life community, such as cementing the pro-life majority on the Supreme Court who overturned the disastrous Roe v. Wade decision. President Trump has already made significant gains for the pro-life cause in his second term, such as fortifying our national commitment to the Hyde Amendment and reinstating the Mexico City Policy. Now is the time to continue this momentum and build on these historic accomplishments.
Congress must act now and use the reconciliation bill to redirect Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funds to services that offer life rather than death and hope instead of despair. This would be another major step in establishing a culture of human dignity and ensuring that every citizen’s unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are recognized.