The president of the pro-life activist group Live Action, Lila Rose, on Thursday was joined by nearly a dozen members of the U.S. House in a Capitol Hill news conference aimed at getting Congress to defund Planned Parenthood.
It would save U.S. taxpayers half a billion dollars a year.
President Trump already has issued an executive order banning U.S. funding of abortions in foreign countries, but halting the allocation to Planned Parenthood requires congressional action, which already has begun.
Rose’s group recently released undercover videos revealing that while the abortion industry giant boasts of providing prenatal services and ultrasounds, those services are almost non-existent.
She told WND the members of Congress are essential to stopping taxpayer funding of abortionists.
“These congressmen are standing up for life and working to make the defunding Planned Parenthood a reality. These representatives are trying to accomplish what Americans have calling on for years,” Rose said.
“These House members are so into the campaign for life. They’re standing up for life and we’re standing alongside them in this campaign,” she said. “We’re there to help educate the public about abortion and to support the defunding movement.”
Rose said she is expecting quick action on removing funding for Planned Parenthood, whose executives were caught on video negotiating the prices of the body parts of aborted babies.
“There’s a threat of a filibuster in the Senate to stop any bills taking away the funding, but the House is working on bills to redirect the funding to other programs that help with women’s health. If that happens, there’ll have to be a reconciliation bill for the federal budget,” Rose said.
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., one of the House members at the event, said Live Action’s recent investigation proves Planned Parenthood lies to the public about its services.
“We’ve all heard a lot of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ in recent days. But I can think of no organization in the world in recent times that has successfully deceived the world more than Planned Parenthood,” he said in a statement obtained by WND.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, the congressman said, “has openly proclaimed to the world so many times that defunding Planned Parenthood would hurt women by eliminating important services such as prenatal care.”
But Live Action’s investigative video series has “completely exploded this ridiculous lie.”
“And every American should see this video.”
Live Action telephoned 97 Planned Parenthood affiliate clinics and found 92 of them said they didn’t provide any prenatal care at all.
AÂ Planned Parenthood clinic worker who was contacted admitted: “No, we don’t do prenatal services. I mean, it’s called Planned Parenthood, I know it’s kind of deceiving.”
“The dark deception of Planned Parenthood and its supporters has made and continues to make tragic victims out of millions of unborn babies and their mothers,” Franks said.
Planned Parenthood did not respond to a WND effort to obtain comment.
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., was one of the original co-sponsors of the No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Bill passed by Congress in January.
She said the bill was necessary to “protect Americans’ conscience rights by ensuring their hard-earned tax dollars are not used to fund the destruction of innocent life. That is a principle that members of both parties have supported before.”
“Every year, Democrats and Republicans alike have come together to support funding bills that maintain a law called the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the direct federal funding of abortion with limited exceptions,” Black said. “This 40 year old law has saved an estimated 2 million lives, but it is not permanent – meaning that this time-honored protection could be taken away on a whim. What’s more, the law, in its current form, has clear loopholes.”
Rose points to her organization’s ongoing efforts to urge Congress to stop funneling money to Planned Parenthood.
“Live Action has a petition with over half a million people who are calling with their signatures to stop the funding of Planned Parenthood. We’re also showing updates on the investigations Live Action has been doing,” Rose said.
“We’re also reporting on what member of Congress have done of the fight to get the funding taken away,” she said.
Rose said that Planned Parenthood’s claim of providing health care is deceptive.
“They do not do any mammograms, and they give negligible prenatal care and ultrasounds. …Â They are covering up their other activities like child sex trafficking and the sale of baby body parts and many other abuses documented over the years,” Rose said.
Live Action’s video on Planned Parenthood’s response to requests for ultrasounds is here:
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On prenatal care, Planned Parenthood’s response is here:
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Another on prenatal care:
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