The woman behind recent videos that decimate Planned Parenthood’s claim that it needs to receive taxpayer dollars to meet vital pre-natal needs says congressional Republicans are poised to remove funding from the nation’s largest abortion provider and Democrats will be powerless to stop it.
On Tuesday, Live Action released a video showing activists calling Planned Parenthood clinics all around the U.S. seeking an ultrasound to ensure the health of their unborn children. Time after time, the Planned Parenthood workers explain that the clinics only use ultrasounds in preparation for abortions and not to confirm a pregnancy or evaluate the health of a baby.
The video follows on the heels of others that undermine Planned Parenthood’s contention that it needs over half a billion dollars a year in taxpayer money because of the vital services it provides outside of abortions. Officially, Planned Parenthood is forbidden by law from using any public money to perform abortions, so the group insists the money goes towards pre-natal care, mammograms and other women’s health needs.
But Live Action President Lila Rose says the videos are pulling the mask off the Planned Parenthood facade.
“We’ve known that Planned Parenthood is an abortion-first corporation, that they commit about 34 percent of all abortions in this country every year. Yet, they provide less than two percent of the breast cancer screenings, less than one percent of pap smear tests and the numbers go on,” said Rose, who founded Live Action when she was just 15 years old.
She says Planned Parenthood entire argument for receiving federal dollars is now gutted by its own employees.
“They use [ultrasounds and pre-natal care] as a justification for their over half a billion dollars a year in tax payer funds, which led us to do this investigation, to really use Planned parenthood’s own language, their own staff explaining and admitting on tape that they don’t actually provide pre-natal care and they don’t actually provide ultrasounds even though they advertise those things,” said Rose.
Rose, who was in Washington Thursday building support for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, says the GOP is getting ready to yank taxpayer dollars from Planned Parenthood.
“There’s a lot of willpower right now on the Hill. There’s a lot of clarity of focus that we need to get this done. The American people want it. Many of the folks who got into office in the Senate and the House – the most pro-life House ever – campaigned on defunding the abortion industry. So a lot of folks are behind it, a lot of energy and momentum,” said Rose.
It won’t come without a loud fight.
“This is the holy grail for the abortion lobby and for the folks in Congress they have bought with lobbying dollars,” said Rose.
But Rose says the Republicans are ready to defund Planned Parenthood as part of the Obamacare repeal effort. And she says it will happen in a way that Democrats cannot stop.
“It looks like the Planned Parenthood defunding and then the redirecting of that money to federally qualified health centers will be included in the reconciliation bill. That’s what happened last year so this means that it will pass the Senate filibuster because the pro-abortion groups in the Senate right now would filibuster a law that they would try to get through the traditional way,” said Rose.
Reconciliation is a budgetary tactic that removes the 60-vote threshhold to get to a final vote. A simple majority would pass the repeal and the attached defunding language.
As Rose mentioned, the Republicans did that a year ago. But now there is an ally at the other end of Pennsylvania Ave.
“So it’s looking really hopeful. We just have to get that same bill now to President Trump because it’s looking like he would actually sign it into law,” said Rose.
Democrats defend the Planned Parenthood funding by saying millions of low-income women rely on those clinics for non-abortion related care. Rose says that money would still be available for women’s health care.
“If taxpayers are going to be funding anything, the money should be redirected to more worthy health care providers that provide more comprehensive care than Planned Parenthood. There are 13,000 federally qualified health centers who provide better care and don’t focus on abortion. They should get that money, not Planned Parenthood,” said Rose.
Live Action is also launching a petition to urge Congress to follow through on the defunding promise. Over half a million signatures have been gathered so far.
Rose is also optimistic about Trump’s nomination of Federal Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuch. She says Gorsuch’s commitment to the original intent of the American founders gives her confidence Gorsuch would protect the right to life. While Gorsuch has not issued any abortion-related rulings, Rose says his record is pretty clear.
“He’s someone who has advocated against euthanasia, saying any intentional taking of human life by a private party is wrong. So I think it’s really hopeful and I think he deserves all the support we can give him,” said Rose.
“I really hope there’s not a fight in the Senate and that he’s able to be properly confirmed and we have someone who’s really going to defend the right to life and the Constitution on the Supreme Court, in place of (the late Justice Antonin) Scalia, who was dearly loved,” said Rose.
