The pressure worked. We are hearing preliminary reports that the spending bill being voted on this week may contain some funding for the border wall. It is still early, and nothing is set in stone, but it looks like you successfully forced the GOP to hold the line on the border wall.
The question, though, is what did the GOP give up to get it? It seems, a whole lot...
The split apparently goes like this: Republicans get defense and border wall funding, and the Democrats will get to decide the funding levels for "domestic programs."
The spending negotiations were led by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Shelby has been warning for months that conservatives were going to be disappointed over the spending bill negotiations. He warned that Democrats were going to get a lot of what they have been demanding...
And now we know just how far the GOP was willing to cave. The Republicans are agreeing, right now, to undo Pres. Trump's 'Protect Life' order and restore funding to Planned Parenthood!
President Trump promised that if he was elected, he would get the United States government out of the abortion business. He pledged to cut off all federal funding for abortion procedures.
This year. President Trump made good on his promise to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. He did this by signing his "Protect Life" order and cutting off Planned Parenthood's access to Title X funds.
Title X is the program that the government uses to disburse "family planning" grants to health clinics around the country. Since the 1970s, it has been illegal for the Federal government to fund elective abortion procedures. Abortion clinics have gotten around this using creative accounting tricks. For example, while they can't use the funds on abortion procedures, the clinics technically could use them to pay the abortionist's salary...
Trump's order puts an end to this loophole. If a clinic performs abortions, or refers clients for abortion procedures, they are no longer able to access Title X funds. Since it is illegal for the government to fund abortion procedures, it should also be illegal for the government to facilitate abortions... It makes perfect sense.
The result was monumental. Planned Parenthood alone was cut off from over 250 million of funding every single year. When you add up all of the abortion clinics around the country, Trump singlehandedly cut off just shy of 300 million in their funding.
And when Planned Parenthood sued, the 9th Circuit sided with Trump. The liberal judges admitted that what Trump did was legal, and allowed the "Protect Life" rule to go into effect. So today, all of that funding is instead being re-routed to pro-life pregnancy centers that care for women without killing unborn children.
It is a major win. President Trump has saved countless innocent lives and gotten the US government out of the abortion business.
But now, in a "compromise," the GOP is offering to give it all back!
The proposed deal would see a devastating Democrat amendment added to the final version of the Health and Human Services Appropriations Act. It reads that,
"The Secretary shall carry out section 1001 of the Public Health Service Act solely in accordance with any regulations or other conditions or instructions established by the Secretary pursuant to the authority under section 1006 of the PHS Act that applied as of January 18, 2017, to grants and contracts awarded under section 1001 of the PHS Act..."
In other words, Trump would be forced to disburse Title X family planning grants according to the Obama-era regulations that were in place two days before he was sworn in. It would be like all of thee pro-life progress that we just talked about never even happened. For all intents and purposes, the Obama administration's abortion era policies would be restored.
But it gets even worse than that. The amendment also INCREASES the funding that would be available to abortion clinics. So not only would Trump's cuts be reversed, but the abortion industry would get an additional 120 million in taxpayer funds every single year.
This is what the GOP is giving up. It is a total surrender!
Yes, this is about protecting the unborn. But it is also about stopping Congress from dragging us back into the Obama years.
Elections have consequences. President Trump promised to cut off federal abortion funding if he was elected, and he has done just that. Trump's executive order has saved countless innocent lives.
But if this new GOP-Democrat spending "compromise" goes through, it will all be undone. Planned Parenthood would get all of their funding back!
This is it. We have a chance to make Trump's cuts permanent, but only if you fight back against this betrayal right now!
Don't let the GOP turn their backs on the unborn!
Sincerely,
Max McGuire
Advocacy Director
Conservative Daily
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