(CNSNews.com) - President Donald Trump’s budget proposal together with the American Health Care Act, which Trump’s proposal embraces, would deny all federal funding to Planned Parenthood through both discretionary Title X grants and Medicaid.
“The budget also follows through on a campaign promise and prohibits any funding in the Labor-HHS appropriations bill for certain entities that provide abortions, including Planned Parenthood,” says a fact sheet published by the Office of Management and Budget. “This prohibition applies to all funds in the bill, including Medicaid.”
According to a May 18, 2017 Congressional Research Service report, the Government Accountability Office determined that Planned Parenthood Federation of America affiliates received $400.56 million in Medicaid reimbursements in 2012. The same GAO analysis, according to CRS, said PPFA affiliates also received $64.35 million in Title X money that year.
In its annual report for 2012-2013, Planned Parenthood said that it did 327,166 abortions in fiscal 2012.
The American Health Care Act, the Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill that was approved in the House by a 217-213 vote on May 4, includes language that would prohibit any federal funding from going to a non-profit organization that is primarily engaged in family planning, that received more than $350 million in Medicaid money in 2014, and that provides abortion other than in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger.
“CBO expects that, according to those criteria, only Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates and clinics would be affected,” said the CBO analysis of the AHCA. “Most federal funds received by such entities come from payments for services provided to enrollees in states’ Medicaid programs.”
Because the AHCA is a reconciliation bill--which does not deal with discretionary spending programs (as opposed to “mandatory” programs such as Medicaid)--the bill would not have any impact on Title X and the federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood through that channel.
Title X is the federal grant program for “family planning” organizations.
“The federal government provides grants for family planning services through the Family Planning Program, Title X of the Public Health Service Act,” explains the Congressional Research Service. “Enacted in 1970, it is the only domestic federal program devoted solely to family planning and related preventive health services.”
“Title X,” says CRS, “is administered through the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) in the Department of Health and Human Services.”
President Trump’s budget proposal that was sent to Congress yesterday includes abortion-provider-defunding language that mirrors the Medicaid Planned-Parenthood-defunding language in that AHCA—but also applies to Title X.
SEC. 520. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available by this Act may be made available either directly, through a State (including through managed care contracts with a State), or through any other means, to a prohibited entity.
(b) PROHIBITED ENTITY.—The term "prohibited entity" means an entity, including its affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, and clinics— (1) that, as of the date of enactment of this Act…
(C) performs, or provides any funds to any other entity that performs, abortions, other than an abortion—(i) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest; or (ii) in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself; and
(2) for which the total amount of Federal grants to such entity, including grants to any affiliates, subsidiaries, or clinics, under title X of the Public Health Service Act in fiscal year 2016 exceeded $23,000,000.”
The Office of Management and Budget says this language cuts Title X funding for Planned Parenthood.
In a briefing on Monday, when Melanie Arter of CNSNews.com asked OMB Director Mick Mulvaney whether the president’s budget defunded Planned Parenthood, Mulvaney said: “Yes.”
“It does,” said Mulvaney, “… 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.”
The AHCA, denying Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, is a reconciliation bill, which cannot be filibustered in the Senate and can be enacted with a simple majority vote. An appropriations bill that includes President Trump’s proposed language to deny Title X funding to Planned Parenthood could be filibustered in the Senate.
In a letter to pro-life leaders last September, then-candidate Donald Trump promised to defund Planned Parenthood so long as it performs abortions.
“I am committed to…Defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions, and re-allocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health for women,” Trump said in that letter.
The Planned Parenthood Action Fund put up a blog today attacking Trump's budget for proposing to defund the organization.
“In an unprecedented move, Trump’s budget singles out women who access Planned Parenthood for basic, preventive health care,” said the Planned Parenthood Action Fund blog. “For the first time in history, the president’s budget prohibits Planned Parenthood from participating in ANY program funded through Congress’s annual Labor-HHS bill.”