Title X

The amendment to block funding to Planned Parenthood passed by a vote of 240-185, achieving a long-held goal of Religious Right groups that vehemently oppose the healthcare organization. During the debate, House Republicans frequently touted the hoax videos produced by the extreme group Live Action and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) even pledged to go after Planned Parenthood’s non-profit status.

Taxpayer funding of abortion is already barred under federal law, and this new amendment would stop Planned Parenthood from receiving funds to provide the medical services which comprise the vast majority of the group’s work, like cancer screenings, tests for sexually transmitted infections, and family healthcare.

But an amendment devastating women’s healthcare is a reason to celebrate for anti-choice leaders and their allies in Congress:

Mike Pence:

This afternoon’s vote is a victory for taxpayers and a victory for life. By banning federal funding to Planned Parenthood, Congress has taken a stand for millions of Americans who believe their tax dollars should not be used to subsidize the largest abortion provider in America.

I commend my colleagues in both parties for taking a stand for taxpayers and a stand for life. I encourage my colleagues in the Senate to support this legislation and end federal funding of Planned Parenthood once and for all.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, Susan B. Anthony List:

“Ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood is a non-negotiable,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “It must be a top priority in the Continuing Resolution battle. Taxpayers have strongly rejected their complicity with Planned Parenthood in the sex trafficking of underage girls. Pro-life America demands that our leaders in the Senate step up and take on this fight and that the House leadership holds its ground. Americans have spoken and the time to defund Planned Parenthood, a habitual and unapologetic ally of those who deal in the exploitation of minors, is now. This is a black and white issue and we will accept nothing less than the total defunding of Planned Parenthood in the Continuing Resolution.”

Tony Perkins, Family Research Council:

“We commend Mike Pence and the bipartisan majority of House Members who stood with the American people in saying that enough is enough. Planned Parenthood, a scandal-plagued abortion organization, must be held accountable for abusing innocent young victims while receiving hundreds of millions in federal dollars each year.

“The fact that Planned Parenthood not only left minor girls trapped in prostitution, but encouraged it, shows an incredible lack of humanity on their part. What goes on behind the windowless offices of Planned Parenthood, as Live Action's videos show, is both saddening and shocking, but the fact that it has often been done with taxpayer dollars is indefensible.”

National Right to Life Committee:

“This landmark vote demonstrates that most House members now recognize Planned Parenthood is a hyper-political, under-regulated, out-of-control mega-marketer of abortion as a method of birth control,” said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson.

…

“Now senators, too, will go on record on whether to push the snout of this bloated abortion mega-marketer, Planned Parenthood, out of the U.S. Treasury feeding trough,” said NRLC's Johnson.

Jay Sekulow, American Center for Law and Justice:

“There’s no better place to begin the budget cutting process, than putting a stop to funding Planned Parenthood,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. “It’s stunning that Planned Parenthood receives more than $360 million dollars a year in federal taxpayer funds. According to its own filings, Planned Parenthood reported more than 330,000 abortions in 2009 alone, a number that continues to climb. By receiving this windfall of federal funds, Planned Parenthood is able to free-up other resources enabling them to continue to promote and expand their pro-abortion agenda. The approval of the Pence Amendment in the House is long overdue and sends a strong message - American taxpayers are no longer willing to subsidize the nation's largest abortion provider.”

Even GOProud tried to take credit and tweeted:

Victory! @GOPROUD supported effort to defund Planned Parenthood passes the House. #tcot

Update:

Traditional Values Coalition:

Planned Parenthood is not in the industry of health care, nor has it ever been. Just this year, Planned Parenthood demanded that all Planned Parenthood clinics will offer abortions -- no exceptions. The Pence Amendment will strip $170 million in Title X funding intended for health care services away from the national abortion provider from Planned Parenthood, and I couldn’t be happier.

As the Pence Amendment inevitably reaches the U.S. Senate, taxpayers need to strenuously remind their lawmakers that each taxpayer dollar spent on Planned Parenthood frees up one dollar for Planned Parenthood to spend on its abortion arm. Those who defend Planned Parenthood’s abortion business are on the wrong side of history and the American taxpayer.

Priests for Life:

As illustrated by the outcome of this afternoon’s vote, members of the newly-elected House of Representatives are moving forward with various bills to defund the abortion industry. The argument here is not simply that we should not be forced to pay for things with which we disagree. The argument is that we should not pay for the killing of children. Remember, many of the most ardent supporters of abortion admit that it kills a child. Our government, indeed our civilization, is built on the premise that life is to be protected, not destroyed.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), the longtime leader of efforts to eliminate Planned Parenthood's funding that goes towards women’s health programs, has released a statement saying that the videos produced by Lila Rose’s radical group Live Action should push Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. The Religious Right has consistently tried to demonize Planned Parenthood in order to strip the organization of its federal funding, and Live Action’s videos have encouraged anti-choice groups to step-up their activities. While Planned Parenthood notified the FBI of a possible sex trafficking ring promptly after members of Live Action tried to scam clinic workers, anti-choice leaders embraced the discredited videos anyway. Pence is now calling on Congress to pass his legislation that would end federal funding of Planned Parenthood:

The recent release of an undercover video exposing duplicity and potential criminality by an employee of Planned Parenthood is an outrage.

Every American should be shocked that an employee of the largest recipient of federal funds under Title X has been recorded aiding and abetting underage sex trafficking.

The time to deny any and all funding to Planned Parenthood is now. In the wake of yet another scandal involving Planned Parenthood, I urge Congress to move the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act to the floor for immediate consideration.

As Kyle notes, Religious Right organizations have launched a coordinated effort to bring down Planned Parenthood just as the House is set to hold hearings on the misleadingly-named “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” H.R. 3, that attempts to end insurance coverage for abortion and even redefine 'rape.' The House may also take-up Rep. Mike Pence’s “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act,” which would strip funding to Planned Parenthood that goes towards women’s health services.

Republican leaders have had no problems using smears in their drive to pass anti-choice legislation in the past. Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Michele Bachmann falsely claimed that women in Pennsylvania were using federal dollars to pay for abortions as a result of the health care reform law. Bachmann suggested that defunding Planned Parenthood would help solve the country’s budget deficit, and Pence even used the unemployment rate as a reason to end funding to Planned Parenthood.

Rep. Chris Smith, the chief sponsor of H.R.3, and Rep. Joe Pitts, who sponsored the Stupak-Pitts Amendment and is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health, both participated in a 2009 Religious Right campaign warning of a “a massive effort to mandate taxpayer-funded abortions” through the health care reform law and blasting Planned Parenthood funding: “Citing the $350 million in taxpayer money handed over to Planned Parenthood, the U.S. abortion industry’s largest business, it warned, ‘Now they want even more!’” And Pitts absurdly claimed on Fox News that the health care reform law would “compel communities who don’t have [abortion] service to provide it.”

That same year, Religious Right leader Gary Bauer called upon activists to attack Planned Parenthood just as James O’Keefe targeted ACORN: “Planned Parenthood deserves the same treatment ACORN is getting and should be stripped of the hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars it receives annually.”

Earlier this week, Smith told Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association that the GOP leadership is solidly behind his bill, and that “Planned Parenthood and the others in the abortion rights movement” who oppose his legislation “are just are trying to poison the waters while they literally poison the child to death.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List is already using Live Action’s video in her demand for Congress to pass anti-choice legislation:

The horror exposed in the video released yesterday was not an isolated incident in the history of a group willing to be a chief ally in the exploitation of women and girls. The unbroken chain of Planned Parenthood's violations is appalling. Yet, this organization insists that it deserves taxpayers' continued support. The moment for taxpayers to reject their compulsory funding of the exploitation of women has arrived. If this organization doesn't shut down its gruesome business altogether, it should at least operate on its own dime. The SBA List and other groups in this coalition are calling upon pro-life America to contact their Representatives and urge them to support the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. Planned Parenthood must be defunded.

Within hours of the release of Lila Rose's latest hoax video attack on Planned Parenthood, Religious Right anti-choice leaders had already lined-up in support and began using it to demand that the organization be de-funded.

Taking down Planned Parenthood has been a primary goal of the Religious Right for years and it looks like plans have been in the works to exploiting this latest video for some time now, because these same leaders have already launched a new effort called Expose Planned Parenthood complete with its own website:

Anti-abortion groups will launch today an aggressive campaign aiming to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding.

A new website, Expose Planned Parenthood, went live late Tuesday backed by a coalition of national and local anti-abortion groups. The website, previewed exclusively to POLITICO, will serve as a hub for the movement’s efforts to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funds.

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The new anti-Planned Parenthood campaign, led by Susan B. Anthony List and Live Action, also includes Concerned Women for America, Americans United for Life, 40 Days for Life, Students for Life, the Family Research Council, and New Jersey Right to Life.

“If there is a point where we can say ‘this is too much,’ this is it,” Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser told POLITICO. “Contributing to a group willing to be a chief ally in the exploitation of women and girls is indeed too much. Taxpayer support of Planned Parenthood is just that.”

The site hosts an online action center where anti-abortion activists can lobby their members of Congress to support Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-Ind.) Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would strip the group of federal funding. The outreach campaign will ask activists to lobby members through emails, letters to the editor and letters to local Congressional offices.

And these same leaders are all joining together for a webcast tomorrow to be hosted by the Family Research Council:

A new undercover sting operation shows abortion giant Planned Parenthood's willingness to exploit the victims of child prostitution.

Shocking undercover video footage reveals a Planned Parenthood clinic manager assuring a pimp that the clinic would secretly offer full access to abortions and other services -- despite knowing full well that the girls were underage victims.

To respond swiftly to this crisis -- and to take decisive action to strip Planned Parenthood of all taxpayer funding -- the pro-life movement is uniting this THURSDAY NIGHT on a nationwide webcast ... and your attendance is critical!

Register today for our webcast and you'll be among the first to see the disturbing undercover video footage -- that already has Planned Parenthood in panic mode -- and you'll learn how YOU can take action to help defund Planned Parenthood, which received more than $363 million in taxpayer dollars over the last year

FRC Action President Tony Perkins will be joined by Lila Rose, president of Live Action. Lila will show the video footage, explain the specifics of the sting operation, and detail Planned Parenthood's inexcusable actions.

Joining the Webcast will be top pro-life leaders, including:

* LILA ROSE, Live Action
* MARJORIE DANNENFELSER, Susan B. Anthony List
* TONY PERKINS, Family Research Council
* DAVID BEREIT, 40 Days for Life
* ABBY JOHNSON, Former Planned Parenthood Director, Now Pro-Life Activist and Author
* DR. ALVEDA KING, Priests for Life
* WENDY WRIGHT, Concerned Women for America
* CHARMAINE YOEST, Americans United for Life
* STEVE WAGNER, The Renewal Forum
* KRISTAN HAWKINS, Students for Life of America

Amazing, isn't it, how in less than 24 hours after the release of this video, the Religious Right had already unified behind a press release, created a website, and coordinated a webcast.