House Defunds Planned Parenthood

Press Release

Congressman Kevin Cramer made the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives today passed legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and protect infants born alive during an abortion.

"North Dakotans affirm life everyday through strong stable family structures which value life. We have over 70,000 square miles and thousands of women who need health care services, but we don't have a Planned Parenthood clinic because North Dakota women somehow don't meet their business model. There are, however, compassionate providers offering more comprehensive services across my state. This map shows the localities of seventy-one Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) which provide quality care to underserved, low income women in rural and urban communities throughout my state. The patients who come through the doors of these clinics are treated as valued community members, not as a fee-for-service and certainly not as a $45 specimen. This Congress and its relevant committees must complete a thorough investigation of the disturbing accusations evidenced in the Planned Parenthood videos before another taxpayer dollar goes to this controversial organization. These funds can be better used providing legitimate health services for women in places like North Dakota."

The House took this action in response to a series of undercover investigative videos released this summer by the Center for Medical Progress. These videos allegedly show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood represents the largest abortion provider in the nation, performing over 325,000 abortions per year while receivingover $500 million in taxpayer funding.

H.R. 3134 places a one-year moratorium on all federal funding, including Medicaid, to Planned Parenthood or any of its affiliate clinics, unless the entirety of the Planned Parenthood Federation certifies each clinic or affiliate will not perform, nor will it provide funds to any entities performing, an abortion during the one-year period. The bill provides the usual Hyde Amendment exceptions for abortions performed in the cases of rape or incest or in order to protect the health of the mother as certified by a physician.

Federal funding not paid to Planned Parenthood would instead fund women's health care at federally qualified health centers (FQHQ's) and community health clinics (CHS's) which provide more holistic health services and do not perform abortions.

In addition to passing the one-year ban on funding for Planned Parenthood, the House passed H.R. 3504. This legislation would require any health care practitioner present at the time any child is born to exercise the same standard of care required in normal births to any child born alive as the result of an attempted abortion. Health care practitioners would also be required to ensure the child is immediately transported to and admitted to a hospital. This legislation would require mandatory reporting of violations of this act to state or federal law enforcement agencies. Violations of the provisions of the act would be punishable by fines or imprisonment of not more than five years, or both. In the event of an intentional killing of a child born alive, this legislation would require violators to be punished under section 1111 of title 18, for the intentional or attempted killing of a human being.

Under this legislation, the mother of a child born alive could not be prosecuted.

This legislation also provides civil remedies for the mothers of children who are born alive as a result of a failed abortion. This will allow them to hold abortion providers accountable for their actions.

Congressman Cramer is an original co-sponsor of both pieces of legislation.

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