The Family Research Council is calling on Christians to contact their elected representatives in Congress to urge them to support legislation that would end a "backdoor handout" President Barack Obama offered Planned Parenthood in the final days of his administration.
In an email to supporters, FRC President Tony Perkins wrote:
In December 2016, former President Obama's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized a regulation blocking states from defunding Planned Parenthood from federal Title X family planning funds, effectively creating a backdoor handout for the abortion industry. This week, Congress has the opportunity to overrule Obama's harmful rule by passing Rep. Diane Black's (R-Tenn.) H.J. Res. 43, a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Under the CRA, Congress has 60 legislative days to overturn agency rules like this one, and it requires only 51 votes in the Senate.
Title X is a federal grant program that provides funds for family planning services. Many states have passed laws to exclude such funds from going to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. While often Title X grants go to private entities, many states are the main grant recipient of these funds. Those states realize that money is fungible. When Planned Parenthood or other abortion clinics receive Title X family planning funding, it frees resources for them to spend more on abortion. The Title X law itself prevents funds from being used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning, but nowhere does the law say that grant recipients must include abortion providers. Obama's HHS rule is an executive overreach that is without basis in the law.
States should be free to prioritize health care providers they find most effective at offering comprehensive health care services, including family planning services, without being forced to comply with a new federal mandate to fill the coffers of abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. President Donald Trump has promised to support "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."
Your Congressman needs to hear from you to pass the CRA resolution of disapproval to overturn President Obama's Title X overreach. Please call your U.S. House Representative at (202) 225-3121 and urge him or her to vote for Rep. Black's H.J. Res. 43. After you've called, you can also send them an email.
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