As the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the ERLC sent a letter to the United States House Energy and Commerce Committee to request decisive action be taken in the upcoming budget reconciliation process to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund Planned Parenthood.
This committee oversees federal healthcare funding which provides a vital opportunity to ensure that the largest abortion provider in the nation no longer receives taxpayer dollars. Planned Parenthood performs nearly 400,000 abortions annually. Despite its claims of prioritizing women’s health, its own reports reveal a stark reality: taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood has increased, while non-abortive healthcare services have plummeted. Abortions performed by the organization have risen by more than 12%. Additionally, since 2010, its taxpayer funding has increased by 43%, even as its non-abortive services have declined between 70-80%.
The American people should not be forced to subsidize an organization that profits from the deaths of innocent lives. In last month’s Marist Poll, even a significant portion of self-identified pro-choice Americans (41%) opposed the use of taxpayer dollars for abortion. Many Americans do not want their tax money supporting an organization that profits from the loss of preborn lives and the exploitation of mothers, particularly one with $2.1 billion in annual revenue and more than $2.5 billion in net assets. Congress has consistently upheld the principle that taxpayers should not be compelled to fund abortion, reaffirming the broad, bipartisan consensus that public funds should not be used to support the destruction of innocent life.
The ERLC calls on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to take decisive action in the reconciliation process to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.
While federal law prohibits direct taxpayer funding of abortion through the Hyde family of amendments, Congress indirectly supports abortion through fungibility with every dollar given to an abortion provider. The reconciliation process provides a clear opportunity to finally correct this injustice.
It is time to end this indefensible arrangement. The ERLC calls on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to take decisive action in the reconciliation process to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and, preferably, redirect these resources to providers that truly support women and families. As you consider this critical issue, we urge you to stand for life and ensure that the consciences of the American people are protected by refusing to compel them to fund an organization that violates their deeply held moral and ethical beliefs.
SBC actions in support of ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood
Southern Baptists spoke to abortion at the 2022 annual meeting through the Resolution “On Anticipation of a Historic Moment in the Pro-life Movement,” in 2021 through the Resolution “On Taxpayer Complicity in Abortion and the Hyde Amendment,” and in 2017 through the Resolution “On Defunding and Investigating Planned Parenthood.”
