Pro-life senators have introduced legislation closing a loophole Planned Parenthood has been using to spend tax dollars to subsidize its abortion business.
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and 26 other Republican senators have introduced “The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act” to close loopholes that allow Title X family planning funds to go to entities that perform abortions, including Planned Parenthood.
“Abortion providers have a long history of misappropriating taxpayer dollars to quietly fund the industry, and we must close those loopholes,” said Blackburn. “The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act will help end taxpayer funded support for the abortion industry and protect the unborn.”
Since 1976, federal law has prohibited using federal funds to directly pay for abortions, with Section 1008 of the Public Health Service Act explicitly stating that tax funds provided to medical providers under the Title X family planning program “shall not be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”
The law is popular, with a January 2023 Marist poll finding 60 percent of Americans oppose taxpayer-funded abortion.
But Planned Parenthood and other abortion centers have found a loophole.
Title X rules created under the Clinton administration require all grantees to refer patients for abortions if they ask and allow abortion facilities to be co-located within Title X clinics.
Planned Parenthood is using that language to play a shell game with tax dollars to evade federal law.
Planned Parenthood clinics will use their Title X tax dollars to pay a “family planning” employee to “refer” a patient for an abortion. The abortion center is in the same facility, with the facility staff and waiting room are paid for with the remaining Title X tax dollars as a “family planning clinic.”
In many of these Planned Parenthood clinics, the abortion center generates the profits, and the “family planning” clinic is merely a front to qualify the abortion center for tax dollars it can use to pay for the facility and staff.
The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act amends the Public Health Service Act to prohibit the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from providing federal family planning grants to entities that perform abortions, or provide funds to entities that perform abortions.
Blackburn was joined by Senators Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., John Thune, R-S.D., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., James Lankford, R-Okla., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., James Risch, R-Idaho, Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Todd Young, R-Ind., Steve Daines, R-Mont., Deb Fischer, R-Neb., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Mike Braun, R-Ind., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Tim Scott, R-S.C., John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, John Hoeven, R-N.D., Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.
The legislation is endorsed by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Americans United for Life, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities, March for Life, National Right to Life Committee and Students for Life Action.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Hooray awesome Chap 7 PP
Identifying this as a shell game is the more accurate depiction. “Loophole” suggests a legal way around the desired outcome. What they are doing isn’t legal. They are simply hiding from the public the information that would prove what they are doing is illegal. In other words, the shell game is the type of cover up they are employing to conceal their crimes.
loophole is one way to put it. I have been saying for years that merely supporting PP is an INDIRECT use of our tax dollars to pay for an abortion.
I have seen this mentality before. A supervisor from Eastern Europe was fond of receiving funds for a special project and then creating an ‘umbrella’ for their own unrelated pet projects to benefit from these funds on the sly. It sounded like a Communist plot to me.