A regulation blocking states from defunding Planned Parenthood from federal Title X family planning funds, which was signed into law just before President Barack Obama left office, has been overruled by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Family Research Council is reporting on the passage of H.J. Res. 43, a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) which allows lawmakers to overturn agency rules within 60 days and requires only 51 votes in the Senate. The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) and overturns the former president’s last-minute attempt to secure Title X family planning funds for Planned Parenthood.
“Despite the histrionics you may hear on the other side of the aisle today, with this resolution we are not voting to defund Planned Parenthood, voting to cut Title X funding, or voting to restrict abortion rights,” Congressman Black said during her testimony on the House floor. “ . . . [W]e are simply voting today to affirm the right of states to fund the healthcare providers that best suit their needs, without fear of reprisal from their own federal government.”
She goes on to reference the success in home state of Tennessee in steering Title X dollars away from health care providers that perform abortions to county health departments and other qualified providers.
The Department of Health and Human Services 2015 annual report on Title X family planning revealed that more than 75,000 Tennesseans received quality health care. This number is more than those served in more populated states such as Virginia and Michigan.
Therefore, this resolution isn’t about denying women health care and should not be a partisan issue, she said, “because that’s how the Title X grant program functioned for more than 45 years until the Obama Administration decided to leave this parting gift to the abortion industry on his way out the door.”
The former president set unprecedented new parameters on how states must select Title X grantees that were specifically designed to prop up its political allies in the abortion industry, she said.
“With my resolution, I’m proposing that we go back just a few short weeks to December 15, 2016 – the day before the Obama Administration decided to reconfigure a 45-year old program with this ill-conceived order. That is all my resolution would do.”
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins applauded Black’s efforts and the success of the resolution which will finally begin the process of “derailing the gravy train” that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers have been enjoying at the taxpayer’s expense.
“Planned Parenthood’s political arm spent more than $38 million in this past November’s election,” Perkins reminds. “An organization that directly receives taxpayer funding should not be able to spend money to influence the outcome of elections.”
He adds: “Every state should be free to decide how it spends its dollars — especially if they’re choosing positive alternatives to ‘abortion-as-health-care’ model. Obama’s HHS rule on Title X is an executive overreach and a handout to the abortion industry that has no basis in law.”
He is now urging the Senate to follow suit and pass Senator Joni Ernst’s companion legislation, S.J. Res. 13.
“As a nation, we are without excuse in subsidizing Planned Parenthood’s gruesome trafficking of baby body parts and their inhumane treatment of mothers and their unborn children,” Perkins concluded.
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