The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is charged with an
enormous responsibility of managing the massive taxpayer-funded federal budget
allocated to healthcare. HHS controls the Title X program, which distributes
hundreds of millions of dollars to family planning for low-income Americans.
Federal regulations prohibit Title X money from funding abortion.
Yet, in spite of this prohibition, America’s largest abortion business has had
its hands deep in Title X’s coffers for decades. Over that time, Planned
Parenthood has leeched hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers – not to
mention the billions of dollars it has raked in from Medicaid.
This is why pro-lifers were so relieved when President Trump appointed who we
believed were fellow pro-life advocates to the helm of HHS. Finally, we
thought, after sixty million children have been heinously slaughtered by Planned
Parenthood and its allies in the abortion industry, we would finally start to
see our tax dollars used to help rather than to harm. We followed HHS with hope
and high expectations for the tangible change we believed would take place as
HHS put its stated pro-life values into practice.
But that never happened.
We saw HHS claim pro-life values on paper over and over. The agency changed the
definition of life as beginning at conception – a good sign. We saw HHS issue a
bold Protect Life Rule, a no-holds-barred regulation threat clearly prohibited
Planned Parenthood from Title X funding because of its participation in abortion
and its documented willingness to aid and abet sex traffickers.
Under the leadership of Secretary Alex Azar, we believed HHS had reordered its
distorted priorities. We had soldiered through eight years of radical
pro-abortion leadership under Obama and were led to believe that our tax dollars
would finally be used to help rather than harm the innocent. Months of
anticipation culminated, and I and the rest of the pro-life movement were eager
to see the long-awaited list of new Title X recipients
[https://www.hhs.gov/opa/grants-and-funding/recent-grant-awards/index.html] last
Friday.
Planned Parenthood was all over the list.
I double-checked the fiscal year I was looking at. Maybe I had accidentally
pulled up a grantee list from the Obama era. No. This was the new 2018 list.
I counted one, two, three… thirteen Planned Parenthood affiliates. What?At
least there must be pro-life recipients on the list who would use my tax dollars
to heal rather than kill. No.Not a single one.
Lip service. All of HHS’s pro-life promises and statements and regulations had
been lip service. After a year and a half pro-lifers spent waiting patiently
for HHS to act on its written pro-life position, HHS redoubled its commitment to
Planned Parenthood. We had rallied behind HHS, supported it at every step, and
defended its leaders from attacks by leftist media pundits because we were led
to believe that HHS was fighting a battle for good against forces of evil.
Little did we know the agency was fighting for the opposite team.
The betrayal was even more bizarre in light of a legal battle HHS had just won
for the right to defund Planned Parenthood. A federal judge ruled that HHS
could withhold Title X funding from the abortion giant.
So where do we go from here? To be honest, I don’t know. President Trump and
Vice President Pence should replace the staff at HHS now that it has shown
itself unwilling to adhere to the Administration’s pro-life agenda.
As for myself, I will be praying for the President’s discernment and for a
conversion of heart among the leadership at HHS. Because of HHS’s abject
failure, children will die. That is a sobering reality that transcends political
bureaucracies. HHS is responsible for a grave injustice, and it must be held
accountable by you and by me.
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