Proposed Budget Cuts Title X Funding to Abortion Providers

cnsnews.com ^ | June 19, 2015 | Kathleen Brown |

[Morgana]

(CNSNews.com) -- House Republicans are pushing a budget proposal that cuts funding from Title X, the national family planning program enacted by former President Richard Nixon in 1970, because it allocates federal funds to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood is the largest recipient of Title X funding, and also the nation’s largest abortion provider. The organization has been vocal about its opposition to the 2016 Fiscal Year budget proposal released by the House Appropriations Labor-Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Tuesday.

Section 229 of the budget bill states that: “None of the funds appropriated in this Act may be used to carry out Title X of the PHS [Public Health Service] Act.” transmitted infection screenings, but does not extend to “programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”

However, millions of taxpayer dollars have been directed to organizations which provide Title X family planning services, but also perform or facilitate abortions, such as Planned Parenthood. According to Planned Parenthood’s 2013 annual report, abortions made up 94% of the group’s pregnancy services.

In a statement released by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, president Cecile Richards accused Congress of “holding women, and our country, back” “by cutting critical programs, such as the Title X Family Planning program, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program, and international family planning and reproductive health programs.”

However, Lila Rose, president of pro-life advocacy group Live Action, views the proposed budget cuts as a step in the right direction.