Major Victory: Bill Defunding Planned Parenthood Sent to Pres. Obama’s Desk

Today, by a vote of 240 to 181, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a reconciliation bill that defunds Planned Parenthood and defeats ObamaCare by repealing large portions of the bill supported by the abortion industry.

The reconciliation procedure is a special legislative maneuver that bypasses the ability of Senators to filibuster a bill.  It allowed the Senate to pass ObamaCare in the first place and, now, the majority pro-life Congress is using it to repeal large portions of the bill and, for the first time, send a bill defunding Planned Parenthood – the largest abortion business in America – to President Obama’s desk.

This is a major moment in the pro-life movement. This will be the first time in history that a bill to defund Planned Parenthood has ever reached President Obama’s desk.  While President Obama will likely veto this bill, hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans will be in D.C. later this month for the March for Life. This will be the perfect time for the House to schedule a vote to override the President’s veto.

Just last month Planned Parenthood released its annual report, detailing how much of our taxpayer money goes to the nation’s largest abortion provider. The staggering numbers in this report underscore exactly why defunding Planned Parenthood is so critical.

In its 2014-2015 annual report, Planned Parenthood stated that it performed 323,999 abortions compared to only 2,024 adoption referrals.

And despite all the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood’s gruesome practices this year, the abortion giant received over $25 million more from U.S. taxpayers this year than last year, receiving $553,700,000 in revenue from “government health services grants and reimbursements.”

For all of our tax dollars it received, how many services did Planned Parenthood provide, excluding reproductive services?  After all, Planned Parenthood’s President Cecile Richards has staked her defense against Planned Parenthood’s sale of slaughtered baby parts on the number of non-abortion services it provides.

According to its own report, women-only health care services not related to reproductive services (pap smears, HPV vaccinations, breast exams, LEEP procedures, UTO treatments, and colposcopy procedures) DECREASED by 244,717 this past year compared to last year (982,153 to 737,674) – a staggering nearly 25% drop.

So by their own admission, Planned Parenthood is receiving millions more in government funding and preforming less cancer screening and preventative services.

It is outrageous that Cecile Richards and her pro-abortion allies in Washington and Hollywood continue to misrepresent the work of Planned Parenthood in the name of women’s health, when their own report clearly proves otherwise.  They shout from the rooftops that Planned Parenthood exists to protect and provide preventative healthcare for at-risk women, yet their annual report makes it clear that their bottom-line is almost entirely driven by their abortion services. 

This is not pro-women.  By their own measure, they took over $25 million more of our tax dollars while providing nearly 25% less in preventative health care services for women. And that’s not even taking into account the killing of nearly 323,999 lives – pitting mothers against their own babies.

It is time for the lies and misdirection of Planned Parenthood to end. Women and their babies have suffered for far too long at the hands of the abortion giant. 

Sending this bill to defund Planned Parenthood to President Obama’s desk is a big victory.  But we must continue to fight for every single vulnerable human life in our communities, in courts, and on Capitol Hill until they are protected from those who prey upon them.

We will not yield.  We will vigorously defend the defenseless.  As the American people awake to the horrors of abortion, momentum for life continues to build.

UPDATE 1.8.2016: President Obama has just vetoed this critical measure defunding Planned Parenthood and repealing key parts of pro-abortion ObamaCare, but the fight is not over.