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WASHINGTON, D.C., February 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Contrary to some arguments, the cut to Planned Parenthood funds in the U.S. House budget bill passed by the U.S. House does not attack medical care for low-income women but frees up the funds for thousands of clinics that aren’t as tied up with the abortion industry, said the amendment’s author.

U.S. Rep. Mike Pence defended the spending cut in a column for The Star Press of East Central Indiana Thursday.

“There are literally thousands of clinics across the country – other than Planned Parenthood – that receive federal funding and offer access to health care for low-income women and families,” wrote Pence.

Pence reiterated his statement on the House floor during debate over the amendment to defund Planned Parenthood that he personally supports Title X “family planning” funding, which had already been cut from the bill, but wants to end the funding of Planned Parenthood because of its corporate dependence on killing unborn children.

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“While Planned Parenthood asserts that no federal funds are used to provide or promote abortion, a woman entering a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2009 was 42 times more likely to have an abortion than to receive either prenatal care or be referred for adoption,” said Pence.

“I believe that ending an innocent human life is morally wrong. I also believe it is morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to fund organizations that provide and promote abortions, like Planned Parenthood of America.”

In an opinion column for the Daily Caller Feb. 17, https://dailycaller.com/2011/02/17/getting-taxpayers-out-of-the-abortion-business/#ixzz1EtdDlJdJ Pence and Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said it was not enough that Planned Parenthood’s federal funds are technically segregated from its abortion business.

“There is no question that the taxpayer dollars Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers receive under Title X are used to cover allowed expenses such as overhead and operational costs, thus freeing up other money to promote and provide abortions,” they wrote. “In numerous cases, Planned Parenthood clinics funded by Title X are only steps away from their abortion clinics, many times even in the same building.”