Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler introduced a bill in the House this week to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. The bill would “place a one-year moratorium on all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.”
“Taxpayers should not have to pay for Planned Parenthood’s abortion industry,” Hartzler said in a statement announcing the legislation. “Abortion is not healthcare, yet it is the foundation of Planned Parenthood’s mission.”
Planned Parenthood’s new president Leana Wen confirmed that abortion was the group’s “core mission” earlier this week after she took issue with the way a Buzzfeed headline portrayed the group’s focus as “nonabortion services.”
Hartzler, a Republican who represents the 4th Congressional District, pointed out that, “in its latest annual report, Planned Parenthood boasts performing more than 321,000 abortions while receiving over half a billion dollars a year from the taxpayer. These staggering numbers represent the lives of children who no longer are with us, and Americans are forced to support it.”
Her bill would also provide $235 million to community health centers across the nation.
“Community Health Centers are more numerous than Planned Parenthood clinics and unlike abortion providers, offer comprehensive healthcare to women and their babies,” she said.
“We should be investing in women’s healthcare, not abortion,” Hartzler concluded. “This legislation will help ensure that the American taxpayer supports efforts to improve the health and well-being of women and their babies by increasing funds for health centers that share this very important goal.”
Planned Parenthood received $543.7 million in taxpayer funds in 2016-2017, according to their latest annual report.
Due to the Democratic control of the House, Rep. Hartzler’s bill is unlikely to make any headway. House Democrats have already attempted to expand taxpayer-funded abortion overseas in the funding bill they recently passed in an attempt to re-open the government.
Republicans have struggled to pass legislation defunding the abortion giant. The Republican-controlled House passed legislation to defund Planned Parenthood in the past Congress but those efforts fell short in the more closely-divided Senate.
