Washington, DC—On Monday night, August 3, 2015, the United States Senate took a historic vote on federal funding of Planned Parenthood. In a vote to force an up-or-down vote on Planned Parenthood funding, 54 United States senators said, by their votes, that the time has come to end taxpayer funding of the nation’s largest abortion chain. (Fifty-three voted for cloture while Senator McConnell said he favored cloture and voted no only so he could call the defunding bill back to the floor at a future date.)
The United States House of Representatives has voted several times in recent years to take federal funding away from Planned Parenthood, but this is the first time the Senate has joined in that call.
“Monday’s vote was a watershed moment in the fight against taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood,” said Judie Brown, president of American Life League. “The last time the Senate had a vote on Planned Parenthood funding, in April 2011, only 42 senators voted to defund the organization. Monday’s vote shows the tide has turned against Planned Parenthood.”
Planned Parenthood receives over a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money every year. PPFA reported that it took in $528.4 million from the government in its 2013-2014 fiscal year and $2.6 billion in the last five years.
ALL’s vice president, Jim Sedlak, said,
Today is a great day for the thousands of people across the country who have worked so hard for so long to bring an end to taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. Although many think that opposition to Planned Parenthood comes just because of its abortion business, we know better. In community after community across this country, pro-lifers are joined by outraged parents and fiscal conservatives in fighting Planned Parenthood. With what happened in the Senate, all these people are energized and ready to bring this fight to its logical conclusion—the end of all taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.
Both Brown and Sedlak said that, in addition to the current revelations about PP, parents are outraged at how Planned Parenthood comes between them and their children, forcing despicable sex indoctrination programs on young people in the classroom, then instructing them that Planned Parenthood will provide “confidential services” so their parents won’t find out what they are doing.
Media inquiries, please contact Rob Gasper at 540.659.4171 or Rgasper@all.org.
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American Life League was co-founded in 1979 by Judie Brown, a three-time appointee to the Pontifical Academy for Life. ALL is the oldest national Catholic pro-life education and advocacy organization in the United States. For more information, please visit www.ALL.org or call 540-659-4171.