A year ago, the nation was shocked by the release of a video that showed a senior Planned Parenthood official discussing in graphic detail how her organization sold the body parts of aborted babies. It was a chilling look into the callous disregard for human life that epitomizes Planned Parenthood’s culture, and why this organization should never get another dime of taxpayer money.
Yet, Planned Parenthood still receives more than a half a billion dollars of taxpayer money, with the federal government being its largest source of government funding. Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in America, and taxpayers simply should not be asked to subsidize its continued assault on innocent human life.
As a man of a faith with deeply held pro-life convictions, I am outraged by the actions of Planned Parenthood and am committed to zeroing out its funding should I have the honor of serving Southwest Florida in Congress. While liberal politicians like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to defend the indefensible on the basis that Planned Parenthood provides other health care services to women, there is no acceptable justification for continuing to fund an organization that is hostile to the values of millions of taxpayers. There are countless community-based and qualified health centers throughout the country who provide services for women, but do not provide abortions. We could steer the money that goes to Planned Parenthood to these organizations, improving the delivery of health care to women and avoiding sending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to an organization that provides abortions.
Let me be clear: This is not an issue I will pay lip service to and then ignore in Congress. My commitment to the pro-life cause is unequivocal. As a former Ambassador to the Vatican, I worked closely with the Holy See to promote a culture of life. I believe with all my heart that we are ultimately measured by how we treat the most vulnerable in our society. We have a moral duty to stand strong in defense of life from conception to natural death. In addition to fighting to defund Planned Parenthood, I will work to ban painful, late-term abortions that occur after twenty weeks of pregnancy. These are babies who can live outside the mother’s womb, and we must push back against Hillary Clinton and the national abortion lobby to ban late term abortions, once and for all.
I am also committed to ensuring that women facing difficult pregnancies are provided with the support and information they need to make the right choice to deliver their babies. I know that many women encounter gut-wrenching decisions. That’s why I will support more funding for crisis pregnancy centers to help mothers in need. I am also committed to making it easier for families to adopt children. Together, these steps can greatly reduce the incidence of abortion in America.
It has been one year since America got a look deep inside the mindset and values of Planned Parenthood. We must not forget what this organization is really about. Their heinous acts, particularly the harvesting of human tissue and its sale for profit cannot be set aside.
Conservatives across America must be firm and resolute in our commitment to defunding this organization. There are approximately one million abortions performed in America each year. Planned Parenthood is an organization that foments the culture that is responsible for this moral failure in our society. In Congress, I will draw a line in the sand and fight on principle until Planned Parenthood is denied access to your tax money and late term abortions are banned in our country.
Republican Francis Rooney, CEO of Rooney Holdings, a Naples-based investment and holding company, is running for the United States House of Representatives 19th Congressional District.
