Although it’s painfully predictable, it’s nearly impossible to stay in front of the disinformation oozing from every crevice of the political realm. While writing a piece on recent big government, big spending federal legislation; an article link with the headline President Trump Promises to Veto Democrat Shutdown Bill That Funds Planned Parenthood appeared in my messages.
I was shocked and dismayed to find that it was from LifeNews.com. The article utterly neglects pro-life, Republican accountability. As a pro-life activist I felt compelled to lay my big government, big spending piece aside and jump out in front of this to set the record straight with unabridged truth.
The LifeNews.com article begins: “The White House has issued a statement on behalf of President Trump saying he promises to veto a Democrat bill to end the partial government shutdown that also funds the Planned Parenthood abortion giant.”
One sentence into the piece and my rock-ribbed, pro-life eyes are rolling out of my head.
It continues with a reference to H.R. 21:
“Nancy Pelosi took the gavel today as Speaker for the 116th Congress and her and her priority agenda to dismantle the pro-life policies of the Trump Administration take center stage. Pelosi’s first priority as the next Speaker is to attempt to force Americans to pay for abortions and to funnel taxpayer dollars to the nation’s biggest abortion business. She wants Americans to be forced to fund Planned Parenthood and its International group’s efforts to promote and perform abortions in other countries.”
The article then quotes portions of the Statement of Administration Policy released by the White House, including this statement: “The bill would also undermine the President’s Mexico City Policy (Presidential Memorandum of January 23, 2017), which prohibits the funding of foreign nongovernmental organizations that promote or perform abortions.” The author goes on to say, “The bills face dim prospects in the GOP-controlled Senate.”
At this point, I was in double facepalm and full rebuttal mode.
The reality is, in September 2018, after the 93-7 passage of the Defense appropriations “minibus” bill, conservative Utah Senator Mike Lee, took to the Senate floor to rip his Republican colleagues. The measure includes continued funding of both Planned Parenthood and research that uses the fetal tissue from aborted babies.
“For the second straight year of unified Republican governance, unified pro-life governance, Congress’ annual spending bills will include no new reforms protecting unborn children or getting federal taxpayers out of the abortion business,” Senator Lee lamented.
The LifeNews.com article says that “Pelosi’s first priority as the next Speaker is to attempt to force Americans to pay for abortions and to funnel taxpayer dollars to the nation’s biggest abortion business.”
The GOP has had majority control of both houses of Congress since 2014 and every branch of federal government since 2016. Planned Parenthood has remained fully funded with every single spending measure under their majority, federal government rule. So, for LifeNews.com or anyone else to make the claim that Nancy Pelosi or Democrats are unilaterally attempting to force American’s to pay for abortions and funnel taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood is disingenuous, at best.
It also leaves an otherwise pro-life voting block to believe that their own political party is blameless for the death and dismemberment of as many as 3,000 American babies every single day. While not holding one Republican in Washington accountable for failing them, instead they use the issue to incite more sectarian manufactured, misguided outrage.
Here are the spending bills passed since 2016.
- 2016 – Passed by the GOP-led Senate 72-26, the GOP-led House 342-85 and signed by Barack Obama September 29th, 2016.
- 2017 – $1.3 Trillion omnibus spending bill passed by GOP-led Senate 65-32, GOP-led House 256-167 and signed by Donald J. Trump on May 5th 2017.
- 2018 – The $856.9 “minibus” bills with Planned Parenthood funded in the defense bill (H.R. 6157) was passed by GOP-led Senate 92-8, GOP-led House 361-61 and signed by Donald J. Trump on September 28th, 2018.
Each bill includes $500 million ($1.5 billion over 3 years) or more in taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood to continue abortion on demand.
The International Abortion policy cited in the LifeNews.com piece; better known as The Mexico City Policy, renamed “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance” under Trump, was initially implemented in 1984 by Ronald Reagan. It has been rescinded and reinstated by subsequent administrations along party lines since then. It has been in effect for 19 of the past 34 years.
The policy requires foreign non-government organizations (NGO) to certify that they will not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning,” using funds from any source as a condition for receiving U.S. and other government global family planning assistance. U.S. NGO are not directly subject to the same terms stated above.
So, just to clarify, the U.S. government has essentially directed the world’s abortion providers not to perform or promote abortion as a method of family planning with American taxpayer money. Yet, Planned Parenthood continues to operate; funded by taxpayer dollars without a single new congressional de-funding policy, nor executive directive. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even with a pro-life majority in every branch of federal government for two years.
There is no discernible evidence that the Mexico City Policy affects the incidence of abortion one way or the other. It only suggestively reduces taxpayer complicity in global abortion. However, the policy doesn’t reduce the overall amount of U.S. funding for global health assistance. It only attempts to prioritize maternal care, prenatal care, and other programs that ensure adequate nutrition and medical care for mothers and children, rather than abortion.
USAID says 729 non-profits will receive US taxpayer funding Even Marie Stopes, the most egregious of all international abortion providers who refused to comply with the terms of the Mexico City Policy, is still receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars by shifting operations to other NGOs.
Planned Parenthood found a way to evade the Hyde Amendment by shuffling federal money away from abortion so that other funds can be reallocated for abortion services. Are we naïve enough to believe the rest of the world’s abortion providers haven’t figured out how to evade the Mexico City Policy especially considering our ‘pro-life’ majority has continued to fully fund and in some cases even promote abortion right here in America while building a multi-billion dollar political machine by pretending they haven’t?
C’mon LifeNews.com, you can’t seriously be that hellbent on making a lifelong “very pro-choice,” pro-late term abortion Democrat look good to unsuspecting pro-lifers. Where do your loyalties really lie?
Lita is the National Director of United For Freedom, a freelance writer, contributor at The Strident Conservative and Managing Editor at The Rebel Report. She is a rock-ribbed conservative, pro-life, constitutional rights activist from rural Georgia.
She is the mother of three, a Christian, a gun enthusiast and enjoys playing guitar. You can follow her on Twitter.
“Unless the people, through unified action, arise and take charge of their government, they will find that their government has taken charge of them. Independence and liberty will be gone, and the general public will find itself in a condition of servitude to an aggregation of organized and selfish interest.” – Calvin Coolidge
