President Barack Obama’s deputies in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are releasing a final rule that favors abortion business Planned Parenthood by preventing states from eliminating its Medicaid taxpayer funding.
Dr. Karen Scott, chief medical officer with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, said, “This rule will strengthen access to essential services like cancer screenings and contraception for some of the most vulnerable patients in this country.”
“Public comments showed overwhelming support for finalizing the rule, which clarifies that all organizations able to provide these services should be eligible to compete for funds.” she added.
More than a dozen states have attempted to eliminate Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding in the wake of the release of videos last year that alleged the abortion chain harvests the body parts of babies aborted in its clinics and sells them for profit. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have been successful in challenging all the state laws eliminating its funding in court. It has been assisted by the Obama administration, which has threatened states that approve the abortion business’ defunding with punishment, claiming eliminating the group’s Medicaid funding violates federal law.
The Obama administration has also participated in the narrative set by the abortion industry and the mainstream media that Planned Parenthood provides services to low-income women that cannot be obtained elsewhere.
However, states that have eliminated Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding have redirected it to other healthcare centers that have met the federal government’s criteria.
These federally qualified healthcare centers (FQHCs) provide more comprehensive services than Planned Parenthood to low-income families. Nationally, there are 13,000 FQHCs – a figure that outnumbers Planned Parenthood facilities by 20 to 1.
Despite the overwhelming number of FQHCs, however, the Obama administration says that by redirecting funding away from Planned Parenthood, the states “have interfered with” low-income individuals’ ability to access federal assistance quickly.
Planned Parenthood celebrated Obama’s new rule Wednesday on Twitter:
.@POTUS's new rule protects preventive health care & family planning for the millions of people who rely on #TitleX: https://t.co/aDFajROQqO pic.twitter.com/LdCUsM1m2H
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) December 14, 2016
The rule is released, however, one day after the Senate Judiciary Committee referred Planned Parenthood and several biomedical procurement companies with which it partners to both the FBI and the Justice Department for investigation and possible criminal prosecution.
Additionally, two weeks ago, the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives referred Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast for possible criminal prosecution by the Texas Attorney General.
Regarding the rule, Casey Mattox, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, told Breitbart News, “Nothing is permanent in politics, including this rule that has no support in the law actually passed by Congress.”
“States are free to allocate funds to providers that provide better care for women and families rather than abortion businesses that hurt women,” he added. “Planned Parenthood spent $38 million to elect political cronies, but ultimately, they will not even have this rule to show for it because they failed to get their candidate into the White House.”
On Tuesday, pro-life organization Americans United for Life released a new report titled “Unsafe,” which provides details of hundreds of violations of state health and safety laws regulating abortion clinics, including those affiliated with Planned Parenthood.
The new rule is scheduled to go into effect on January 18, 2017.
Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), a registered nurse and member of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, said the rule is essentially an act of desperation.
“With this rule, we see an administration that has become unglued at the knowledge of the impending pro-life sea change in Washington, D.C.,” she explained in a statement. “President Obama knows that hope is rising for the innocent victims of Planned Parenthood’s brutality, and the big abortion industry’s days of taxpayer-funded windfalls are numbered.”
“We should not be surprised that his administration would lash out with this eleventh hour power grab on the way out the door, but I am certain this rule will not stand for long,” she added. “Come next year, our pro-life majorities in Congress will be positioned to work with President-elect Trump and pro-life nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Tom Price, to not only roll back this latest overreach, but also to enact new legal protections for these most vulnerable members of our society.”
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