American taxpayer dollars are now being redirected from pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, and instead of being given to certain pro-life nonprofits that provide women with life-saving options other than abortions. The nonprofits that are receiving these newly acquired funds work to provide women with prenatal care, free ultrasounds, diapers, clothes for them and their babies, etc.*
In February of this year, President Donald Trump partially defunded Planned Parenthood by finalizing an administrative rule that could redirect as much as $60 million taxpayer-funded dollars away from the nation’s largest abortion provider. Under the previous rule, Planned Parenthood was receiving in excess of $50 million taxpayer dollars in Title X funds. Title X is a federal grant program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services that includes roughly $286 million which it distributes to family healthcare centers. Planned Parenthood received roughly $50-$60 million of this money. The now finalized “Protect Life Rule” filed with the Office of Management and Budget stripped Planned Parenthood and other abortion provider’s access to Title X funding until it separates abortion from the other services that it claims to provide.
The abortion giant Planned Parenthood has thus far lost approximately $50 million because it has refused to stop offering abortions. Obria, a California-based chain of pro-life pregnancy centers instead received a portion of those funds, according to Lifenews:
Obria founder Kathleen Eaton Bravo said her goal is to become a pro-life alternative to Planned Parenthood.
“I wanted to create a comprehensive medical clinic model that could compete nose-to-nose with the large abortion providers,” she wrote on the Obria website.
Obria also provides sex education that encourages abstinence and teaches people to avoid sexual risks. In July, it received a separate grant for $500,000 through the Department of Health and Human Services Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
According to Mother Jones, Obria hopes to create a “network of ‘life-affirming’ clinics that provide… STI testing, ultrasounds, and cervical cancer screenings, but without the birth control, abortion, or abortion referrals.”
Safe, healthy, informative alternatives to Planned Parenthood are vital to women’s health. The Trump administration should continue to take steps to ensure organizations that truly work to care for women’s needs are given priority when it comes to supplying aid in the form of taxpayer dollars.
*Editor’s note: While federal funds are now being given to pro-life pregnancy care centers, that doesn’t include faith-based pro-life pregnancy care centers that meet the spiritual as well as physical needs of its clients. Faith-based clinics are still solely dependent on private funding.
