The Patriot Post® · How to Defund the Abortion Industry

Should tax dollars pay for abortions? If you are one of the 60% of Americans who say “no,” you have an opportunity to stop a part of the tax flow to the abortion industry.

Here’s how: Title X is a federal grant program funded by taxpayer money. Unfortunately, some of that taxpayer money funds abortion clinics and services. Planned Parenthood stands as the largest abortion provider in the nation and receives more than $50 million per year from Title X funding, which is just a tenth of its $500 million annual federal haul.

Health and Human Services (HHS) recently proposed a new “rule” that prohibits Title X funding from supporting abortion providers. The new rule, also known as the Protect Life Rule, requires a physical and financial separation between Title X money and abortion clinics. It proposes regulations similar to the “Reagan rule” upheld by the Supreme Court in 1991 in Rust v. Sullivan. The rule seeks to “ensure compliance with, and enhance implementation of, the statutory requirement that none of the funds appropriated for Title X may be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”

In short, the rule ensures that abortion providers do not receive Title X taxpayer money. HHS will take public comments until July 31, 2018. After reviewing the public comments, HHS will decide on a final ruling.

In response to the proposed rule, the abortion industry continues to mislead the public with statements that such a rule endangers “health care.” Stopping taxpayer money from funding abortion under Title X does not endanger health care if it’s defined as caring for patients. It does, however, endanger the taxpayer money train that has been supporting Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers for far too long.

Cutting Title X funding to Planned Parenthood would remove approximately $50 million of its current $500 million government stipend. The abortion mill has over $1.6 billion in assets. It can afford it. It can’t, however, afford the brand damage resulting from a Title X cut. As public opinion shifts, its business model begins to crumble. And the lie that women must have a “right” to buy its product suddenly becomes exposed as a crony falsehood.

Consider the semantics games they play. “Reproductive health care” sounds like health care for reproduction. In reality, it means ending a woman’s reproductive process. This is not health care; it’s abortion. And it is neither healthy nor caring.

“Women’s rights” sound like rights for women, but they really mean the created “right” of women to end the life of their offspring. Is that a right? Is it morally right?

Many abortion advocates claim, “Our bodies are our own.” But does it not follow that our bodies are our own responsibility and not the responsibility of the government? In other words, it’s one thing to allow abortion. It’s another thing entirely to force taxpayers to fund it, Planned Parenthood’s accounting gimmicks notwithstanding.

What the HHS Title X comment period means to the average American is this: HHS says Title X tax money shouldn’t fund the abortion industry. If you agree, tell them. If you’ve ever wanted your voice to be heard on taxpayer funding to the abortion industry, now is your chance to have direct input. Every comment will make a difference in the final ruling.

The public comment period ends on July 31, 2018.

Follow this link and then click “Submit a Formal Comment.”

Fill in the comment box. For example, “I support the Protect Life Rule to keep Title X funds out of the abortion industry.”

Fill in your contact information.

Click submit.

Congratulations! You helped to keep Title X tax dollars from funding abortion.