Barack Obama “has cemented his legacy as a champion for women’s health,” crowed Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards. What makes the chief of the nation’s largest abortion mill so happy? A last-minute Obama regulation aimed at saving Planned Parenthood’s huge federal revenue stream — half a billion dollars from federal taxpayers every year. “The final version of the [HHS] rule,” reports The Washington Times, “requires states to distribute dollars from Title X of the Public Health Service Act without taking into account whether recipient clinics perform abortions.” Fourteen states have directed funding away from Planned Parenthood in recent years. Obama’s rule is basically the reverse of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funds for abortions. But don’t think for a minute that $500 million in federal funds isn’t helping pay for some abortions.

Richards added, “Now, we continue to fight for our patients’ access to care.” Dr. Karen A. Scott, chief medical officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, got the talking points memo, saying, “This rule will strengthen access to essential services like cancer screenings and contraception for some of the most vulnerable patients in this country.” We’ll note again that Planned Parenthood doesn’t own a single mammogram machine, which is what most people think when hearing “women’s health” and “cancer screenings.” Planned Parenthood is deliberately deceptive in this regard. And that’s not even to mention the organization’s efforts to sell harvested organs from aborted babies, for which both House and Senate committees have issued a criminal referral.

Of course, with Donald Trump and his incoming HHS Secretary Tom Price about to take the helm, Obama’s new rule may not be long for this world. But it’s the opening salvo in the next battle for funding the abortion giant. Republicans will soon control both ends of Pennsylvania Ave. It’s time to make that count.

Tennessee Rep. Diane Black is ready to fight: “President Obama knows that hope is rising for the innocent victims of Planned Parenthood’s brutality and the big abortion industry’s days of taxpayer-funded windfalls are numbered. We should not be surprised that his administration would lash out with this eleventh hour power grab on the way out the door, but I am certain this rule will not stand for long.”

As for Trump, he said in September, “I am committed to defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions and reallocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women.”