4 Anti-Abortion Priorities for the New Congress
Strip All Federal Funds for Planned Parenthood
As a U.S. Congressman Vice President-elect Mike Pence was frequently the face of legislative measures aimed at removing all federal funds from the nation's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. But because of either Democrat control of the Senate or a White House supportive of abortion rights, nothing substantive ever made it past the President's desk in the past ten years.
In a Dec. 20 post on the website of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, President Russell Moore and Vice President for Public Policy Travis Wussow said they intended to "work with Congress to use the next available budget measure to defund Planned Parenthood. We were supportive of the defund effort that was vetoed by President Obama, and we will continue to work to support this effort in the coming Congress."
Efforts to defund Planned Parenthood received a shot in the arm last summer when undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress showed senior Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the prices of fetal tissue from aborted babies to sell to biotech firms for research.
Late Thursday afternoon, the House Select Investigative Panel on the Energy & Commerce Committee released its final report detailing its comprehensive investigation into Planned Parenthood and those biotech companies to which it sold fetal body parts.
"Over the last year, the Select Panel's relentless fact-finding investigation has laid bare the grisly reality of an abortion industry that is driven by profit, unconcerned by matters of basic ethics and, too often, noncompliant with the few laws we have to protect the safety of women and their unborn children. I have never shied away from my own pro-life views, but the findings of this panel should incense all people of conscience," said Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee in a committee press release.