To provide for a moratorium on Federal funding to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.

Summary: (Sec. 3) This bill prohibits, for a one-year period, the availability of federal funds for any purpose to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., or any of its affiliates or clinics, unless they certify that the affiliates and clinics will not perform, and will not provide any funds to any other entity that performs, an abortion during such period.

The restriction will not apply in cases of rape or incest or where a physical condition endangers a woman's life unless an abortion is performed.

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture must seek repayment of federal assistance received by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., or any affiliate or clinic, if it violates the terms of the certification required by this Act.

(Sec. 4) Additional funding for community health centers is provided for the one-year period described above.

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3 votes
Oct 30, 2015

On the one hand, too many abortions are obtained for reasons amounting to, "Well, on second thought, maybe not..." Perhaps planning ahead and not making a fetus face the consequences of your actions would be in order. Maybe that should be the basic law.

On the other hand:

  1. Planned Parenthood does tons of vital stuff unrelated to abortion, including things (like providing contraceptives) that lessen the frequency of abortions. The nation is better off for these services, and pro-life organizations have not provided an alternative supply of them.
  2. Abortions are and should be legal and available in cases where the woman's sexual consent was violated, or where unforseeable circumstances (like rare childbirth complications or genetic disorders) put mother and/or child in extreme danger. Federal funds are wisely spent on abortion services in such exceptional cases. Defunding the rest of Planned Parenthood intends to leave that untouched if and only if Planned Parenthood ceases providing abortions whenever they are legal. Planned Parenthood would be betraying its principles if it did that; it's going to continue providing all legal abortions in order to maintain women's legal rights. That's not gonna happen; that it will function as a defunding, not a regulation, seems obvious to me.
  3. The law is hard, but it is the law. Abortion is legal; that's the law. If you (like me) don't like it, advocate for change. If you don't want creeping, incremental erosion of freedoms you support, don't support creeping, incremental erosions as a tactic.
  4. Are you really arguing that a non-profit abortion clinic is worse than a for-profit alternative? Even if abortion is murder, a murder-for-profit industry is worse than a non-profit semi-charitable murder organizaton. Planned Parenthood is not the worst of the worst
Pro-life though I am, I am opposed to defunding Planned Parenthood.
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User voted I oppose this bill.
1 vote
Jan 27, 2016

I am pro-choice. But in fact no person can sensibly be for this bill if they are pro-life or pro-choice. Only those who truly want to hurt families or who just want to save money no matter the long-term costs can be in favor of this bill.

Planned Parenthood's abortion services are a tiny fraction of what it does. Even the most hysterical anti-Planned Parenthood advocates, with deliberate misrepresentations, cannot in any substantive way rebut this fact. Planned Parenthood's services to teach people how to use condoms, provide various forms of birth control, and engage with the community undoubtedly preventsfar more abortions than they ever provide. Those who support this bill are exposing the game: If the goal was actually to protect unborn children or to reduce abortions, they should want to help PP accomplish its objective from a pragmatic perspective. The goal is to smash women, because that will be the actual outcome of this bill. The only thing defunding Planned Parenthood would accomplish would be to make it harder for individuals and families to achieve their reproductive goals. Anyone with a sincere belief in liberty would instead try to push forward what Planned Parenthood is doing, while also arguing that abortion is morally wrong and trying to create a social norm about that issue.

Planned Parenthood is a family planning and reproductive rights organization. When families come to them, it would be irresponsible of them to not tell those families about abortion as an option and facilitate that option. This is what real service means: Providing services to people the way that they want, not how one might prefer. Everyone from doctors to attorneys to therapists get used to this fact. I as a counselor have an ethical and practical obligation, if I am offering my help to someone, to help them achieve the outcomes they want, not the ones I prefer. The people who are pushing to defund Planned Parenthood are showing only that they do not understand service.

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