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 American Life League

May 23, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-abortion feminists are bemoaning and pro-lifers are celebrating President Trump's 2018 budget proposal that would withhold all federal funds from abortion-provider Planned Parenthood.

Breitbart reported yesterday that Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney told the media on Monday that the new budget would defund the abortion business, but only if the new Republican healthcare legislation passed recently by the House is also passed by the Senate and signed into law.

Asked if the Fiscal Year 2018 Trump budget defunds Planned Parenthood, Mulvaney said, “’Yes,’ but added that it does ‘because it assumes the American Health Care Act passes and the AHCA in its current form, which is the one we assumed — and that’s making a bunch of assumptions, here — that it assumes that passes and that defunds Planned Parenthood,’” Breitbart reported.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the grassroots pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, applauded Trump, saying, “Taxpayers should not have to prop up Planned Parenthood’s failing, abortion-centered business model.”

“From day one, President Trump has worked to keep his pro-life promises, including stopping taxpayers from being forced to fund abortion and abortion businesses. We’re encouraged to see that the budget released today prevents federal funds from going to the nation’s largest abortion chain, Planned Parenthood,” Dannenfelser said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the liberal pro-abortion “rights” magazine Mother Jones, relying on an “executive summary” of the proposed budget, said, “In practice, this will mean that Planned Parenthood and other entities that provide abortions would suddenly be excluded from participating in the full array of federally funded health programs, even though it is already illegal for federal money to pay for most abortions, thanks to the Hyde amendment.”

Kate Black, chief of staff of the pro-abortion group Emily's List, tweeted ominously:

“FACT: Trump cuts @PPact from ALL programs including VAWA [Violence Against Women Act] grants, cancer screenings, HIV research, Zika prevention, and maternal health.”

But the SBA List said the Trump proposal to redirect taxpayer funding away from Planned Parenthood “would result in a $422 million increase in federal funding for community healthcare centers, which enjoy strong bipartisan support, avoid provision of abortion, and now serve nearly 24.3 million people (and climbing) in medically underserved communities across the United States.”

“At the same time, women receiving Medicaid can continue to use their eligibility at centers where they can also obtain mammograms, mental health services, and a variety of other primary care services,” SBA List said.

But leftist organizations kept up their drumbeat that denying funds to Planned Parenthood and abortion is equivalent to cutting funds to “women’s health.” The liberal, aggressively anti-Trump Huffington Post reported, “The freeze-out [of Planned Parenthood] apparently goes beyond the House GOP’s plan, which excludes Planned Parenthood only from Medicaid reimbursements.”

It quoted Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president, Dawn Laguens, who said, “This is the worst budget for women and women’s health in a generation.”

Dannenfelser highlighted Planned Parenthood’s recent announcement that it will close 10 facilities in four states, “even before any portion of their half-billion dollars in taxpayer funding is redirected to local community health centers.”

Community health centers and rural health centers “outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities by an average of 20 to one nationally and provide the preventative care that Planned Parenthood claims to provide but do not perform abortion,” she said. “Women will be better served by the new growth of comprehensive healthcare alternatives.”

High expectations among pro-lifers

Social conservatives and pro-life advocates are ecstatic over Trump’s pro-life agenda and his life-affirming appointments, leading some pro-lifer leaders who doubted Trump’s commitment to the unborn to say they were wrong about the New York businessman.

Now, these same activists have high expectations for an agency-wide ban on Planned Parenthood funding across the federal government. Trump also signed a law allowing states to defund the abortion business, undoing a late Obama action intended to benefit his ally, Planned Parenthood.

High-profile Christian attorney and talk show host Jay Sekulow, founder of the American Center for Law and Justice, tweeted May 19, “Do you think #Congress' top priority should be the #ObamaCare replacement bill and the defunding of #PlannedParenthood?”

Among those responding in the affirmative was Matthew Ward, who tweeted, “Outlaw wholesale holocaust of humans. Replace ACA [Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare] with free market solutions. Abolish income tax and IRS.”

The Christian site FamilyFellowship.com tweeted: “of course do their job that is what the majority of WE the people have told them 2 do […] anything else is y its called the swamp AKA corruption.”