House Speaker Ryan: GOP Effort to Repeal Obamacare Will Defund Planned Parenthood

Ryan's statements came one day after a House panel produced a report slamming the abortion giant.

By Nancy Flory Published on January 6, 2017

Funding for Planned Parenthood would be cut with the repeal of Obamacare, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday, according to Fox News. Ryan’s announcement came just one day after a special House panel produced a 471-page report criticizing the abortion giant’s business and health care practices, particularly its procurement of fetal tissue from aborted babies.

Ryan was asked a question about defunding the organization during the news conference Thursday and said, “Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill.”

If enacted, the defunding measure would pull about $400 million in Medicare from the group during the following year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The announcement has Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards on the defensive. “Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people’s health, it’s unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care,” she said. 

Richards’ statement that the measure would endanger people’s health is misleading, since the organization doesn’t perform any mammograms, accounts for only 0.97 percent of the U.S.’s Pap tests, performs only 1.8 percent of the U.S.’s breast exams but executes 30.6 percent of abortions nationwide annually — aborting roughly 160 babies for every 1 child it refers for adoption.

In addition, while Richards claims that defunding Planned Parenthood is “unpopular,” approximately 68 percent of Americans oppose public funding for abortions, according to a 2016 poll. Live Action News reported that public support for defunding Planned Parenthood increased after poll participants viewed the Center for Medical Progress’s investigative videos. Of those who saw the videos, the majority were in favor of defunding the abortion provider.

Defunding the abortion provider will remove federal money available for non-abortion services that then allows for other money to pay for abortions or support abortion indirectly. “A lot of the ongoing support in the structural finances for Planned Parenthood goes to build the buildings, the infrastructure that provides abortion,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.

Like the article? Share it with your friends! And use our social media pages to join or start the conversation! Find us on Facebook, X, Instagram, MeWe and Gab.

Inspiration
The Good Life
Katherine Wolf
More from The Stream
Connect with Us