The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a health bill that, for one year, would eliminate a reported $390 million (out of $450 million) in federal funding to Planned Parenthood. The American Health Care Act of 2017 further redirects funding to community centers that vastly outnumber and offer more services than Planned Parenthood clinics but don’t perform abortions.
Should the ACHA pass the Senate and be signed into law, its net effect would be very similar on a federal level to a budget bill passed in Iowa this year that also redirected funds from abortion providers to community health centers.
“I can’t endorse the ACHA’s continuation of federal entanglement in health care,” noted Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The FAMiLY LEADER. “But I wholeheartedly support the decision to stop taxpayer funding of abortion providers and advocates. No American should be compelled to fund and promote abortions in violation of their conscience.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins also released a statement praising the move to cut Planned Parenthood funding: “As a nation, we are without excuse in paying for abortion on demand in Obamacare and subsidizing Planned Parenthood’s gruesome trafficking of baby body parts and its inhumane treatment of mothers and their unborn children.”
“This is a significant day for the defense of life,” Vander Plaats continued. “Yet we have more work to do. We need to remain vigilant in ensuring this funding continues to be directed away from abortion providers like Planned Parenthood until America repents and outlaws the killing of unborn babies.”
