In This Issue
- Planned Parenthood celebrates Biden budget attack on Hyde
- Biden budget gives Planned Parenthood millions
- Biden’s budget– what can be done?
- Update on Planned Parenthood Lubbock
Planned Parenthood celebrates Biden budget attack on Hyde
By Jim Sedlak
On Friday, May 28, 2021, Joe Biden released a budget request for FY2022 (budget request, appendix, and fact sheet). As was expected, Biden’s proposed budget is filled with pro-abortion details and will, if passed, provide millions more federal dollars to Planned Parenthood.
The reaction of Planned Parenthood Federation of America president, Alexis McGill Johnson, reveals how excited Planned Parenthood is about this budget proposal. She said:
“President Biden’s budget, which proposes to end Hyde, is a historic step in the fight for repro freedom. Momentum is on our side, and we look forward to working with the administration & Congress to end the racist, discriminatory Hyde amendment once and for all.”
Once again, Planned Parenthood, which has openly admitted it is a racist, white supremacist organization today, tries to deflect criticism by calling everything it doesn’t like “racist” and “discriminatory.”
Johnson chose to highlight the Hyde Amendment because its existence in the law for over 45 years has prevented Planned Parenthood from claiming even more taxpayer money than it already receives. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding within the Health and Human Services Appropriations bill from being used to pay for elective abortions. The amendment was first added to Congressional appropriations bills in 1976—three years after the Roe decision. It has been renewed every year since 1976 on a bipartisan basis.
The Hyde Amendment is not perfect. While originally having just an exception to save the life of the mother, today that exception has been expanded to include abortions in cases of rape or incest. Yet, the withholding of federal monies has undeniably reduced the total number of abortions.
Even with the Hyde Amendment in force, Planned Parenthood reports that it received $618.1 million dollars in taxpayer money in its latest fiscal year; that is 38 percent of Planned Parenthood’s total budget. Can you imagine how much taxpayer money is going to flow to Planned Parenthood from the Department of Health and Human Services (currently run by PP supporter Xavier Becerra) if the Hyde Amendment is removed?
Recent polls claim that 53 percent of Americans consider themselves to be pro-choice. Yet, those same polls show that 58 percent are opposed to taxpayer funding of abortion. A whopping 77 percent are opposed to paying for abortions in foreign countries. In the past, the International Planned Parenthood Federation has reported receiving millions of dollars from the United States. If the proposed Biden budget is passed without including the Hyde Amendment, the number of abortions in the United States will greatly expand and more and more of our tax dollars will wind up in the bank accounts of Planned Parenthood affiliates in the United States and around the world.
Planned Parenthood claimed that it spent over $45 million to get Biden elected. It also succeeded in getting a major ideological supporter of Planned Parenthood—Kamala Harris—elected to the office of vice-president of the United States. Biden and Harris then managed to get another major supporter of Planned Parenthood—Xavier Becerra—appointed as head of the Department of Health and Human Services. As such, he will control where all that extra money for abortions will go.
It is no wonder that Alexis McGill Johnson chose to highlight the attack on Hyde and use it to illustrate that “momentum” is on the side of Planned Parenthood. Yet, in using that analogy, Johnson has told us how we can stop what is happening. As I learned decades ago in my physics classes, we can stop the momentum by applying a larger force in the opposite direction.
We have been comfortable with Hyde because it has been routinely renewed. But now that there is momentum to get rid of it, we must not only save Hyde, but we must strengthen it. Now is the time for all Americans to insist that, not only must Hyde be maintained, but it should be strengthened by have all its exceptions removed.
If the six out of 10 Americans who oppose taxpayer funding of abortion get behind a campaign to “Strengthen Hyde,” we can hand Planned Parenthood a major defeat and save even more babies every year.
Jim Sedlak is executive director of American Life League, founder of STOPP International, and host of a weekly talk show on the Radio Maria Network. He has been successfully fighting Planned Parenthood since 1985.
Biden budget gives Planned Parenthood millions
The Biden administration has proposed a FY22 budget that will result in the 48 Planned Parenthood affiliates around the country getting millions of additional taxpayer dollars through a couple of major programs.
Under rules put in place in 2019 by the previous administration, Planned Parenthood withdrew from the Title X family planning program rather than separate its family planning business physically and financially from its abortion business. It was estimated at the time that Planned Parenthood received about $60 million from Title X.
The Biden administration has taken two large steps to try to return this taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood and even see a major increase.
First it proposed a new Title X rule which will “remove the 2019 Final Rule requirements for strict physical and financial separation, allow Title X providers to provide nondirective options counseling, and allow Title X providers to refer their patients for all family planning related services desired by the client, including abortion services.” This change will allow Planned Parenthood to re-enter the Title X program and have access to the estimated $60 million or more.
In addition, the proposed FY22 Biden budget will add an extra $54 million to the Title X program (taking it from $286 million this year to $340 million next year). Clearly, Planned Parenthood is anticipating that the new Title X rule will be approved and that it will then have access to some or most of the $54 million program increase.
In addition to this domestic windfall, Planned Parenthood is expecting huge sums for its international operations. Biden has already terminated the Mexico City Policy of the previous administration that prohibited US funds from going to international organizations that commit or refer for abortions. Now, in his proposed budget, Biden is proposing that “not less than $575,000,000 may be made available for family planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species.” Read that again! According to Biden’s budget, if the choice is between human beings and endangered species, the babies lose! Clearly, we are talking here of international population control efforts. Both the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the Planned Parenthood Global entities expect to receive additional taxpayer dollars from this initiative.
In addition to these specific items in the proposed Biden budget that will benefit Planned Parenthood, members of Congress have also noted additional concerns about how the budget is going to increase the number of babies murdered by abortion. Some of those are:
- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)has been found to support China’s population control program, which utilizes forced abortion and sterilization. The budget removes even the modest funding protections that Democrats had supported in past years, including requiring that UNFPA not fund abortions and stating that funds may not be directly used for country programs in China. While a specific amount of funding for UNFPA was not included in the budget, the State Department requested $56 million for UNFPA.
- Biden calls for the premium tax credits in the American Rescue Plan Act to be made permanent. These tax credits provide subsidies for plans that cover elective abortion.
- The budget expresses support for the creation of a so-called “public option” for a government-run health insurance that would be offered through the ACA marketplaces. During his campaign, Biden stated that the public option would cover elective abortion.
- The budget includes a notwithstanding provision that would allow funding to be provided overseas to “promote gender equality” internationally. If defined to include the provision or promotion of abortion, this language could be used to undermine existing protections like the Helms and Siljander Amendments.
- Replaces the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative with the Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund. It appropriates up to $200 million for the activities of this fund.
Biden’s budget– what can be done?
In this report, we’ve brought you a great deal of bad news about Biden’s proposed budget and its affects on abortion and Planned Parenthood.
We want to emphasize that one of the key words we have used is that it is a “proposed” budget.
Typically, at this time of the year the president will submit his proposed budget. The budget must then be reviewed and approved by both houses of Congress. During that review and approval process, many things can and are often changed. What the proposed budget does is give you insight into the mind of the president and those in his circle of influence. As such, this horrible budget comes as no real surprise.
This budget lays out a path that goes straight to Hell!
The question now is this—what are you going to do about it?
The budget process will continue through the summer months and into September. According to federal law, the government will work under the provisions of the FY21 budget until September 30, 2021. Congress is required to pass a new budget by that date. If not, the government is required to shut down unless Congress passes continuing resolutions.
In past years, these continuing resolutions have kept the government going for months. In some years, the government has actually shut down for days or weeks because a new budget could not get enough votes for approval. Enough votes is the majority of the House and of the Senate.
Here, in 2021, there is the possibility of a large fight over the budget and the administration having to change some or all of the positions expressed in Biden’s proposed budget. Hyde is not dead, yet. We mentioned how to stop the momentum and turn things around in our article about strengthening Hyde.
What is needed is an all-out effort by everyone who loves God and His creations. We must see every threat that exists in this budget proposal and fight extremely hard to overcome them.
Remember—a new human being created by God is always worth infinitely more than biodiversity or an endangered species!
Your elected officials are going to be at home during the summer. Make sure you set up meetings and let them know that this budget must not get passed in its present form. Remind all your representatives in Washington that they are all up for reelection next year. Tell them you will carefully watch how they vote on this budget and will remember that in the 2022 elections.
Let your senators know the same thing. One-third of the Senate is also up for reelection next year—an opportunity to change who controls the Senate.
Please take the release of this proposed budget as your wake-up call. We can prevent much of the evil but only if we are active and make our voices heard. There are lots of problems in America and much of it will only get worse if this proposed budget is allowed to pass.
Put on the armor of God. Read the promises of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10, Verses 32 and 33: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
Now is your time to speak the messages of Jesus. Now is the time to decry murder and the sexual assault on our children. Now is the time to act.
Update on Planned Parenthood Lubbock
The battle over Planned Parenthood’s abortion business in Lubbock, Texas, continues to rage, so we are bringing you the latest updates. For any reader who is not familiar with what is going on, here are links to our previous articles:
- November, 2020 – Background on PP in Lubbock and initial Sanctuary City efforts
- May 5, 2021 – Results of Lubbock citizens vote on becoming a Sanctuary City
- May 19, 2021 – Planned Parenthood files lawsuit against city
Planned Parenthood has stopped doing abortions in Lubbock because of the ordinance.
Newspapers have reported that “According to court documents, the nonprofit has asked the court to declare the ordinance invalid under both the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Texas law, and prevent the city from enforcing the ordinance.”
The judge hearing the case, Honorable James Wesley Hendrix, sent a request to the Texas attorney general’s office asking for an official opinion on whether the ordinance violates Texas law. Just yesterday (June 1) the news site, EverythingLubbock, reported that the Texas solicitor general, Judd E. Stone II, responded to the judge’s request in a letter dated May 31, 2021.
According to Stone’s 7-page letter, “The Office of the Attorney General believes that state law is clear enough for this Court to reject Planned Parenthood’s claims on the merits. But to the extent the Court finds state law ambiguous, it should abstain from resolving these state-law questions.”
Late in the day yesterday, Judge Hendrix dismissed the case against the city. In his ruling, the judge basically accepted the reasoning of the solicitor general. He said, “Because plaintiffs fail to show that any relief provided by this Court is likely to redress the injury at issue—citizen suits brought in state court—the Court lacks jurisdiction.”
Both the solicitor general and the judge mentioned several times in the letter and the ruling the fact that Lubbock is a “home rule” city.
According to USlegal.com, “Home rule cities are those cities which have adopted a home rule charter for their local self-governance. The citizens of a home rule city are free to choose their own form of municipal government, choose between a large or small city council, fix the terms of office of council members, decide on the method of election of the mayor, provide for creation of more boards and commissions which they feel is essential for proper city functioning, etc. In the US, most of the states have home rule cities. For example, Michigan legislature has enacted the Home Rule City Act which provides the frame work by which a new city can become incorporated and have its own government, by adopting a city charter. In Texas, a city with more than 5,000 people can choose to become a home rule city. The home rule city can take any actions which are not prohibited by the state or federal laws and the constitutions of the US and Texas.”
STOPP will keep monitoring this situation and bring you updates. If the fact that Lubbock is a “home rule” city is critical to its ability to enforce the ordinance, it may spur interest in other cities or other municipalities across the nation adopting Home Rule as permitted by their state laws.
