The House Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed two pro-life bills, including a measure that would defund Planned Parenthood for one year unless it stopped performing abortions.

The House passed Rep. Diane Black’s Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 on a 241-187 vote. Two Democrats voted in favor of the measure; three Republicans voted against it.

The House also voted in favor of Rep. Trent Franks’ Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection bill, 248-177.

“Planned Parenthood takes half-a-billion dollars each year from struggling taxpayers to use in its abortion franchises nationwide, which do not provide full-service medical care for women,” said Dr. Charmaine Yoest, the president and CEO of Americans United for Life. “Real health care respects life.” 

“We thank the bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives for removing taxpayer funding to this scandal-ridden organization and redirecting those funds to the thousands of full-spectrum health clinics,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, agreed. “The next step is to add this measure to the short-term budget resolution that forces the Senate to vote again on redirecting tax dollars away from Planned Parenthood.”

Recent undercover videos featuring shocking footage of Planned Parenthood employees discussing the dismemberment and harvest of fetal organs for money helped spur many Congressmen to support the legislation, which would impose a moratorium on funding the abortion provider.

“In light of the troubling Center for Medical Progress videos, the U.S. House made the right call in suspending that level of investment so that women and girls’ health care needs will be met in a safe environment,” Yoest said.

The second bill imposes tougher standards for abortionists that make no effort to save the lives of babies born alive during botched abortions.

“One of the most disturbing discussions in the undercover videos are cold, calculating conversations on the part of top Planned Parenthood officials who discuss the kind of money they can make from babies who die during an abortion, but because their bodies remained intact, their parts are worth more money,” she continued. “A humane society makes it clear in our laws and in our culture that a child born alive deserves protection. I commend the members of the House for standing up for the most vulnerable among us.”

Dr. Yoest testified on Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, about troubling legal issues raised in the undercover videos revealing Planned Parenthood’s trafficking infant body parts.

To read her testimony and to see AUL’s legal analysis of the issues raised, click here. To learn more about the health risks of abortion for all women, click here.