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In the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday, Republicans took a key step toward stopping forced taxpayer funding of the abortion industry – led by Planned Parenthood. Pro-abortion Democrats put on a show full of sound and fury, accomplishing nothing.

Let’s take apart nine big lies they told:

1. 🤥 Abortions can be separated from the rest of Planned Parenthood’s “services”

Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (TX) spoke about her amendment to strip language defunding Big Abortion from the budget bill. She claimed, “This isn’t about abortion…it’s all about all the other things” Planned Parenthood supposedly does, which she proceeded to list.

Here’s the reality about “all those other things”:

Long-term trends show the only items consistently increasing at Planned Parenthood are abortions, gender transitions and taxpayer funding. Even private donations are down while taxpayer funds are up.

Fletcher made a large case about Planned Parenthoods that have (theoretically) pivoted strictly to health care in states where unborn children are legally protected.

But as Rep. Erin Houchin (IN) says, “You can’t pour water into only one part of a bucket.” Former Planned Parenthood employees attest there’s no special bank account marked “Abortions Only.” When you commit nearly 40% of the nation’s million-plus abortions – the top cause of death in America – that is an unavoidable issue. Money is fungible; propping up an abortion business like Planned Parenthood means helping them continue ending innocent lives.

• Mayra Rodriguez: It’s Time to Defund My Former Employer Planned Parenthood

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2. 🤥 Defunding Big Abortion equals cutting Medicaid

Where do they get this stuff? Democrats like Rep. Lori Trahan (MA), ironically, add that alleged Medicaid “cuts” will result in “babies who never take their first breath.”

Quite a claim since Planned Parenthood stopped over 400,000 babies from taking their first breath last year. Not to mention, it’s pure fearmongering. Medicaid dollars follow Medicaid patients. Those dollars would be far better spent on real health care, not underwriting a massive abortion business whose $2 billion in revenue exceeds expenses.

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3. 🤥 Planned Parenthood is the only care option people have

To this claim, Rep. Raul Ruiz (CA) added that “a lot of men” get prostate treatment at Planned Parenthood. He didn’t elaborate on how many is “a lot.” The latest annual report doesn’t reference men at all.

A recent Charlotte Lozier Institute analysis found community health clinics offering women’s health care outnumber Planned Parenthoods 15:1. 477 of those centers are in Texas. Rep. Fletcher’s district, a D +13 sliver of territory that includes parts of Houston, has six federally qualified health centers.

Ranking Member Rep. Frank Pallone (NJ) characterized Planned Parenthood as a place where women can see “specialists” and “feel comfortable.”

Seriously? A Nebraska Planned Parenthood exposed women to a sewage leak that made them vomit. Another in Missouri was shut down after getting caught using moldy equipment. The only things Planned Parenthood “specializes” in are abortion and, increasingly, cross-gender hormones.

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4. 🤥 Ob-gyns are abandoning pro-life states

Rep. Kim Schrier (WA), a pediatrician who should know better, made this false claim. The Democrats clearly aren’t doing their research – even The Journal of the American Medical Association admitted the data don’t back this up.

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5. 🤥 Women will die if Planned Parenthood doesn’t get our tax dollars

The Democrats’ desperation is proportionate to their theatrics. Rep. Nanette Barragán (CA) exclaimed, “Women will get sick and die.” “This legislation will kill women,” accused Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), while her colleague Rep. Paul Tonko asked dramatically, “Why do you want to take away cancer screenings from poor people?” (Committee Democrats no longer say Planned Parenthood offers mammograms, after repeatedly getting fact-checked.)

Yet the Democrats never acknowledge the women who have tragically died as a result of Planned Parenthood’s negligence, direct or indirect, following legal abortions. We found at least five, and no doubt there are more. In the years after Dobbs, the only dead women Democrats and their media allies have managed to find are those whose lives were needlessly cut short by a deadly combination of abortion drug complications and misinformation spread by…Democrats themselves.

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6. 🤥 Women must be near death to receive emergency care in pro-life states

Our verdict is “pants on fire” for Rep. Jennifer McClellan (VA) and Rep. Trahan. No pro-life state law requires death to be imminent before pregnant women can receive emergency treatment – not Texas, not Idaho, not anywhere. Every state allows intervention – even abortion – to save a mother’s life. No state anywhere requires women to “bleed out” or “sit in the parking lot until you’re septic,” as they put it – these are shameful lies that put women in danger.

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7. 🤥 Defunding Big Abortion won’t protect taxpayers from fraud, waste and abuse

Freshman Rep. Rob Menendez (NJ) did not address well-documented allegations that Planned Parenthood overbills Medicaid and double dips to get paid more than once for the same services, or the fact that they’ve paid out millions to settle Medicaid fraud charges. He simply acted as if these don’t exist.

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8. 🤥 Defunding Big Abortion won’t save money

Reps. Diana DeGette (CO) and Doris Matsui (CA) tried a similar tack: fiscal practicality. Their claims have been debunked.

After Sen. Tim Scott’s now-famous exchange with Janet Yellen over her claims that abortion benefits the economy, the Senate Joint Economic Committee under Ranking Member Mike Lee issued a report titled, “The Economic Cost of Abortion” (H/T John Shelton at Advancing American Freedom). While the report notes, “Abortion at its core is a moral issue rather than an economic one,” nevertheless, “even in economic terms, the costs of abortion vastly outweigh any claimed benefits”:

JEC Republicans estimate that the economic cost of abortion in 2019 alone—due to the loss of nearly 630,000 unborn lives—was at least $6.9 trillion, or 32 percent of GDP.

• This economic cost estimate relies on standard methodologies used by federal government agencies to quantify the benefits of policies that affect mortality risks. We apply the same methodology to abortion, which increases the risk of mortality to unborn babies.

That was three years ago – long before The New York Times revealed just how abysmal “care” at Planned Parenthood really is, before young Lexi Arguello became the latest woman to lose her life after an abortion at Planned Parenthood, and before the abortion giant set a grim new record of ending 402,000+ unborn children’s lives in a single year. We can only speculate about the economic benefits when babies allowed to live and countless women finally receive the competent, non-exploitative care they deserve, but they are surely not a small consideration.

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9. 🤥 “Special interests” have “animosity” toward Planned Parenthood

It was bizarre to hear Rep. Fletcher dismiss babies and women as a “special interest.” If anyone has a vested interest in keeping Planned Parenthood going, it’s Democrats who receive their support in elections. During the 2024 election cycle, Planned Parenthood’s political arm spent $70 million to defeat Republicans. (The investment proved a failure.) Fletcher further showed her hand by touting her support for an all-trimester abortion mandate.

Planned Parenthood is a deeply flawed organization, but that’s not irrational animus talking. As GOP Rep. Diana Harshbarger (TN) pointed out, if they would cease the most objectionable parts of their business and refocus on authentic health care, they would keep their funding. Time after time, they’ve refused to do that.

• Marjorie Dannenfelser: Taxpayers, Women Shouldn’t Have to Keep Planned Parenthood on Life Support

Florida Rep. Laurel Lee called out Democrats’ attacks on pro-life Republicans’ character:

In the end, Democrats failed to stop the bill from advancing with defunding Big Abortion intact – a victory for taxpayers and the well-being of women and children across America.