Over 100 Republicans signed and sent a letter to President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him to not suspend and revise the Protect Life Rule in order to prevent Title X funds from being used for abortion.
The Tuesday letter was led by Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn in the Senate and Kansas Rep. Ron Estes and North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx in the House and signed by over 100 Republicans. In the letter, they explain that suspending or changing the Compliance With Statutory Program Integrity Requirements rule, otherwise known as the Protect Life Rule, would be opening it up to federal funding of abortion instead of its purpose of “voluntary family planning projects.”
Becerra and the Biden administration would be undoing the Trump administration’s rules which required organizations that perform abortions or send abortion referrals to do so in separate buildings from those that receive Title X federal funding.
In June 2019, HHS told clinics they would be enforcing the Trump administration’s ban, causing Planned Parenthood to withdraw from the Title X federal family planning program in August 2019.
The GOP lawmakers stated in the letter that the Protect Life Rule authorized taxpayer funds to assist in separating abortion from family planning and that it “directs taxpayer funds to family planning providers who are not in the business of abortion.” The letter also mentions that under former President Bill Clinton’s administration regulations Title X grantees were required to refer for abortion.
“The Protect Life Rule is necessary to maintain the bright line drawn in the original authorizing statute between family planning and abortion. Previously, under the Clinton era regulations, all Title X grantees were required to refer for abortion,” the letter stated. (RELATED: Planned Parenthood Withdraws From Title X Over Trump Abortion Rule)
READ THE LETTER HERE:
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“Additionally, the 2000 regulation was in direct violation of the Weldon Amendment that explicitly protects entities from discrimination based on their not providing, paying for, providing coverage of, or referring for abortion. Not only did this run counter to the program’s statutory prohibition on funding programs, but it discouraged program applicants who do not consider abortion to be a method of family planning from participating in the program. If reinstated the previous regulation will be in direct violation of standing law,” the letter continued.
“The Biden administration is breaking federal law to funnel taxpayer funds to big abortion incorporated through the Title X program. Planned Parenthood has a history of turning a blind eye to child abuse and has received hundreds of millions in federal funding,” Blackburn told the Daily Caller. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Blackburn Holds Roundtable With Small Business Owners Who Explain How $15 Minimum Wage Would Destroy Them)
“By rescinding President Trump’s Protect Life Rule, the administration is stripping protections for women and children victimized by sexual abuse and violence,” she added. (RELATED: Democrats Removed Pro-Life Protections From Massive COVID Bill, GOP Lawmakers Say)
The Daily Caller contacted HHS about the letter to which they did not immediately respond.
