In a piece today on the homepage, I detail the Democratic efforts to extend small-business loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates, and I argue that an easier way to solve the ongoing fight over abortion funding is simply to render all abortion providers ineligible for government funding.
That is, perhaps, too tall of an order for this Congress. But Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler has a bill that would do something similar, at least in the context of coronavirus-relief funding. Her legislation — the ‘‘Limiting Infant Fatality and Empowering Nonprofit Organization Workforces,’’ or the LIFE NOW Act — would explicitly forbid any “entity, including an affiliate, subsidiary, successor, or clinic thereof, that provides abortions” from receiving the forgivable loans created to help mitigate the effects of the coronavirus recession.
The bill, cosponsored by Republican senators Kevin Cramer (N.D.), James Lankford (Okla.), and Mike Rounds (S.D.), also would expand the Paycheck Protection Program to allow larger nonprofits to receive forgivable small-business loans by eliminating the 500-employee cap for nonprofits. It also removes affiliation rules that prevented some faith-based organizations from claiming assistance under the program.
In short, the legislation would allow more loan money to go to nonprofits that need it and allow none to go to groups that profit from abortion.