Pro-Life Leaders Focus on Defunding Planned Parenthood After Supreme Court Rejection

National pro-life leaders say the Supreme Court’s rejection of two cases regarding taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood are a “missed opportunity,” but they also say they will not lose sight of their ultimate goal to defund America’s largest provider of abortions.

“Complicated legal arguments don’t take away from the simple fact that a majority of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, in a statement. “America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, is responsible for more than 300,000 abortions each year and was recently found to be involved with the harvesting and trafficking of body parts from aborted babies.”

“Abortion is not healthcare, it is a human rights abuse,” Mancini added. “Until Planned Parenthood ceases to perform abortions they should not receive any money from taxpayers.”

In response to the news that the high court would not be hearing cases that might have eliminated the taxpayer funding Planned Parenthood receives via Medicaid, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said the rejection amounts to another example of how “taxation without representation lives on today.”

She continued that the decision “ignores the wishes of state leaders who no longer want to be coerced into funding abortion.”

“This is a legitimate question and a missed opportunity – whether abortion vendors have a right to taxpayer monies,” she said.

Chief Justice John Roberts and newly confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh voted with the majority that declined to hear the cases, while Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Petitioners requesting a review of their case by the Supreme Court must obtain four votes in order for the case to be heard.

In his dissent, Thomas asserted the issue at hand is broader than one concerning abortion and involves a question of whether Medicaid recipients have a right to a particular Medicaid provider.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, said she is “disappointed” in the Supreme Court’s rejection of the cases.

“The pro-life citizens of states like Kansas and Louisiana, through their elected representatives, have clearly expressed their will: they do not want Medicaid tax dollars used to prop up abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood,” she said, adding:

We support their right to redirect taxpayer funds away from entities that destroy innocent lives and instead fund comprehensive community health care alternatives that outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities at least 20 to one nationwide.

Planned Parenthood declared “VICTORY” following the announcement of the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the cases:

VICTORY: SCOTUS just allowed lower court rulings to stand in Medicaid “defunding” cases. This decision protects Medicaid patients who rely on Planned Parenthood for birth control, cancer screenings, and STD testing and treatment. https://t.co/XTTTeQPpgF

— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) December 10, 2018

Today's #SCOTUS ruling means that Louisianans can continue to access lifesaving health care at Planned Parenthood, which they have relied on for more than thirty years. pic.twitter.com/O7CXIGe8e0

— Planned Parenthood (@PPGulfCoast) December 10, 2018

While Planned Parenthood continues to declare itself an “irreplaceable” and “life-saving” healthcare provider, a 2017 study by the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) – the research arm of SBA List – found Planned Parenthood depends primarily on its abortion-centered business model, and is not a significant provider of medical care in the United States.

The report observed that Planned Parenthood provides less than 1.4 percent of the nation’s HIV tests and less than one percent of pap tests. Additionally, in the last five years, service-to-client ratios for breast exams and pap tests have declined by 37 percent.

“There is little or no demonstrable capability for definitive diagnosis or a range of treatments for any disease or condition at Planned Parenthood centers,” the CLI study’s authors wrote. “With the exception of abortion, Planned Parenthood does not provide any service that is not easily available from alternative providers.”

Planned Parenthood’s own annual report shows most of its real healthcare services have been in decline as the organization has made its priority to become a political lobbying powerhouse.

The number of prenatal services during 2016-2017 dropped to 7,762 – a 17 percent decline from the 9,419 performed during 2015-2016. In 2014-2015, Planned Parenthood claimed 17,419 prenatal services.

“Planned Parenthood promotes itself as an indispensable health care provider and community asset, while downplaying its role as the nation’s largest abortion vendor,” the CLI authors observed. “This fiction is essential to justifying the half billion dollars in annual taxpayer funding they receive, but their own data paint an entirely different picture.”

Dannenfelser said grassroots pro-life activists “will not stop fighting until every single tax dollar is untangled from the abortion industry led by Planned Parenthood.”

“We urge the Trump Administration to quickly finalize the Protect Life Rule, which would prevent taxpayer funding of the abortion industry under Title X, Planned Parenthood’s second biggest stream of taxpayer revenue after Medicaid,” she added.