Hartzler Introduces the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2021

Press Release

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (MO-04), Chairwoman of the Values Action Team, has introduced the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2021. The legislation would place a one-year moratorium on all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which benefits from taxpayer money while performing and profiting from elective abortions. The legislation would further increase funding for community healthcare centers that focus on comprehensive care for women and their babies. Funds would once again be made available if the organization and its affiliates focused on non-abortion healthcare services that are appropriate for the taxpayer to support. At introduction, this legislation includes 119 original co-sponsors.

"Taxpayers should not have to pay for Planned Parenthood's abortion industry," Hartzler said. "Abortion is not healthcare, yet it is the foundation of Planned Parenthood's mission. In its latest annual report, Planned Parenthood boasts performing more than 345,000 abortions while receiving over $600 million a year from American taxpayers. These staggering figures represent the lives of children who no longer are with us, and our citizens are forced to support it."

Hartzler also noted the decline in Planned Parenthood's comprehensive healthcare services and declining adult patients.

"Abortions make up 95 percent of Planned Parenthood's pregnancy resolutions services," Hartzler added. "For every adoption referral, the organization performed nearly 81 abortions during the 2018-2019 reporting year. Yet, Planned Parenthood promised supporters to deliver a multi-million-dollar plan in 2019 to expand and secure the billion-dollar abortion industry into the future."

Hartzler's legislation would also allocate additional federal dollars to women's healthcare, specifically providing $235 million to community health centers nationwide.

"Community health centers are more abundant than Planned Parenthood clinics and unlike abortion providers, offer comprehensive healthcare to women and their babies," Hartzler said.

"There are over 13,500 Federally Qualified Health Centers nationwide and just over 600 Planned Parenthood clinics. That is over 20 federal health center sites for every one Planned Parenthood facility. In just my home state of Missouri, there are over 28 Federally Qualified Health Centers with 228 service sites, serving over 527,000 Missourians, in comparison to only 12 Planned Parenthood sites," added Hartzler.

These Federally Qualified Health Centers not only offer screening and prevention services, pap smears, cancer screenings, breast exams, and prenatal services, but they also offer a full spectrum of other primary care services which Planned Parenthood fails to provide.

"We should be investing in women's healthcare, not abortion," said Hartzler. "This legislation will help ensure that the American taxpayer supports efforts to improve the health and well-being of women and their babies by increasing funds for health centers that share this very important goal."

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