WASHINGTON — Barack Obama vetoed a bill on Friday that would have defunded the abortion giant Planned Parenthood, as well as repealed key parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
“Rather than fighting old political battles by once again voting to repeal basic protections that provide security for the middle class, members of Congress should be working together to grow the economy, strengthen middle-class families, and create new jobs,” he wrote. “Because of the harm this bill would cause to the health and financial security of milions of Americans, it has earned my veto.”
As previously reported, the House voted 240-181 in favor of the legislation on Wednesday, and last month, the Senate voted 52 to 47.
“It’s up to the president to decide if he wants to side with the people whose health care costs have skyrocketed out of control, or the abortion industrial complex whose profits have skyrocketed out of control,” Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., told reporters at a press conference following the passage of what is known as the reconciliation bill. “Congress is holding President Obama accountable.”
Wednesday’s votes were mainly along party lines, with three Republicans voting against the bill, and one Democrat voting for it. Republican Reps. John Katko and Richard Hanna, both of New York, and Rep. Bob Dold of Illinois all voted against the measure, while Collin Peterson was the sole Democrat supporting the effort.
Most expected Obama to veto the measure, but still issued statements denouncing his actions on Friday.
“President Obama’s gall is stunning,” said Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn. “He spent this week discussing the need to ‘protect innocent people’ and ‘save more lives’ yet he callously vetoed a bill to protect the most innocent and vulnerable among us from the heinous abuses of Planned Parenthood.”
“The president has chosen to continue funding for the abortion giant that helped get him elected rather than expand health care choices for women,” also remarked Casey Mattox of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). “All he has done is kill an historic bill that would have redirected existing funding from the scandal-plagued Planned Parenthood to thousands of better, low-cost community health care providers that serve women and families far more comprehensively.”
“It is past time to end the government’s immoral partnership with Planned Parenthood that has been forced upon the American people,” he said.
As previously reported, Planned Parenthood outlined in its annual report released at the end of December that the organization performed 323,999 abortions nationwide during the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
The organization received $553 million in taxpayer funding/grants in 2014, up from $528 million the year prior, which equated to 43 percent of its total income. $48 million of Planned Parenthood’s income was used for sex education, and $39 million was used for public policy, or to influence state and federal law, up from $33 million in 2013. Despite its expenditures, it still garnered a $61 million dollar profit.
Planned Parenthood was founded in 1921 by Margaret Sanger, which was originally known as the American Birth Control League. She later changed the name as some found it offensive.
“We are paying for, and even submitting to, the dictates of an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all,” Sanger once said, who was reportedly a staunch advocate of eugenics. “The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
Sanger was also the publisher of the newspaper “The Woman Rebel,” which she subtitled “No Gods, no masters.”
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