Sens. Cruz, Blackburn, Over 100 Colleagues Send Letter to President Biden and HHS Secretary Becerra Opposing Abortion on Demand
Press Release
U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), along with Reps. Ron Estes (R-Kan.) and Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), this week sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Xavier Becerra following the administration's decision to expand abortion on demand. The lawmakers were joined by over 100 of their colleagues.
In the letter, the lawmakers wrote:
"We write to express our serious concern regarding your executive memo to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the subsequent March 18th decision to suspend and revise the Compliance With Statutory Program Integrity Requirements rule (Protect Life Rule) finalized March 3, 2019... Created by Congress in 1970, Title X of the Public Health Service Act authorized taxpayer funds to assist "voluntary family planning projects." The Title X statute clearly intended to prohibit federal funds from being used "in programs where abortion is a method of family planning."
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"Additionally, the Protect Life Rule addressed a growing concern about the lack of action previous Title X recipients took on behalf of women and children experiencing abuse. For instance, in 2019, a report compiled several court cases, state health department reports and testimonies from former Planned Parenthood employees, who highlighted multiple incidents where the organization failed to report suspected abuse. Planned Parenthood had been a major recipient of Title X funding, receiving $170 million through the Title X program between 2013 and 2015."
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"The final Protect Life Rule implemented a stronger focus to protect women and children from being victimized by child abuse, sexual abuse, rape, incest, intimate partner violence and trafficking. If you choose to rescind the Protect Life Rule, you will strip away these much-needed updates to ensure that Title X grantees participate in annual staff education and maintain site-specific protocol to aid victims and report suspected crimes."
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