Westmoreland Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood, Protect Unborn Children

Press Release

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two bills to protect the lives of the voiceless and defenseless: H.R. 3134, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act; and H.R. 3504, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

H.R. 3134 freezes funding of Planned Parenthood while they are being investigated for horrific abortion practices, and reallocates the funding to federally qualified community health clinics that do not perform abortions. In fact, in Georgia there are 274 community health clinics and only 4 Planned Parenthood clinics.

H.R. 3504 improves upon a law Congress passed unanimously in 2002 that stated babies who survive an abortion are a person, but did not establish penalties on medical providers who do not provide care to maintain or sustain the life of these surviving babies. H.R. 3504 extends homicide penalties to doctors or clinic staff who purposefully kills a baby that survives an abortion. The bill also includes a civil clause of action to mothers who are harmed during the process.

Representative Westmoreland is an original cosponsor of both bills, and issued the following statement following his vote of support on their passage:

"As the father of three and the grandfather of seven, the atrocious acts described in the Planned Parenthood videos not only break my heart for those innocent souls, but for my grandchildren to have to witness a president and an administration defend these horrific murders," stated Westmoreland. "What we have seen in these videos and heard first-hand from abortion survivors is criminal. No innocent child should be subject to such gruesome acts or be discarded as medical waste. There is no greater gift from God than life, and I will continue to fight tooth and nail to ensure that every single child gets a chance at life."

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