Cruz Repeatedly Lies About Planned Parenthood Funding In Letter For Anti-Choice Group

Sen. Ted Cruz at the 2013 Values Voter Summit. (Photo by Jamelle Bouie via Flickr)

The anti-choice group Susan B. Anthony List sent a fundraising letter this week asking for signatures on a petition urging Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. It was accompanied by a letter from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, in which he repeatedly and falsely claimed that Planned Parenthood uses its taxpayer funding for abortions.

Planned Parenthood receives money through the Title X family planning program and through Medicaid reimbursements for care for low-income people. It is prohibited by law from using federal money to pay for abortions, except in rare cases where a woman has been raped or her life is in danger.

Writing that “millions of babies” have been “killed in the womb” in the U.S., Cruz says, “What you may not know is that you are forced to pay for these unjust killings with your tax dollars!”

But he adds that “right now, my fellow pro-life members of the U.S. House and Senate are closer than ever before to completely cutting off all taxpayer funding for abortion.”

“Former President Obama and his pro-abortion friends spent eight years pushing our tax dollars to the abortion industry,” Cruz writes. “The good news is that President Trump pledged during the campaign that he would sign legislation cutting off Planned Parenthood’s tax funding if Congress sends the bill to his desk.”

“Every year, Planned Parenthood receives nearly $500 million in taxpayer funding,” Cruz writes. “They use that money to end the lives of precious boys and girls in the womb. It is immoral, unjust, and it has to stop.”

“The good news is Susan B. Anthony List is fighting to STOP taxpayer funding for abortion,” Cruz adds. “And my pro-life allies on Capitol Hill are working with President Trump on legislation that will shut down Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded abortion business.”

You can read Cruz’s letter here.