WASHINGTON (CNS) – The head of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee Aug. 3 urged U.S. senators to take the federal money that goes to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and instead fund women’s health care providers that do not promote abortion.

“It has long been troubling to many Americans that the nation’s largest abortion network, performing over a third of all abortions, receives over half a billion taxpayer dollars a year,” said Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley.

“This concern has rightly grown in recent years,” he wrote in a letter to the senators.

The cardinal, who is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, urged senators to support S. 1881, a measure that would defund Planned Parenthood and its affiliates.

Later that day, the Senate voted 53-46 to stop efforts Republicans said Democrats were using to delay and ultimately kill S. 1881. According to an Associated Press story (AP), 60 votes were needed to enable the defunding measure to move forward.

The Senate action came just days before Congress was to begin its August recess. AP said the House is expected to vote on a similar measure when Congress returns.

Cardinal O’Malley’s letter followed the release in mid-July of videos of the organization’s officials filmed undercover by a nonprofit California-based organization called the Center for Medical Progress.

‘Callousness Toward Women’

“The most recent revelations about Planned Parenthood’s willingness to traffic in fetal tissue from abortions, and to alter abortion methods not for any reason related to women’s health but to obtain more ‘intact’ organs, is the latest demonstration of a callousness toward women and their unborn children that is shocking to many Americans,” he said.

In two of the videos, top Planned Parenthood physicians describe how abortions are carried out to best salvage fetal tissue and organs for researchers and described a range of prices paid for different body parts.

A third video was of an interview with a technician talking about harvesting fetal body parts and included graphic footage.

A fourth video has now been released. A temporary restraining order issued by the Los Angeles Superior Court prohibits the Center for Medical Progress from releasing any video footage of interviews of officials from StemExpress, a California-based company that provides organs and tissue to researchers.

Planned Parenthood receives more than $500 million of its $1.3 billion annual budget from federal and state programs. According to 2013 data, Planned Parenthood says abortions represent 3 percent of the total services its facilities provide, which include dispensing birth control and doing women’s health screenings.

In addition to Republicans in the House and Senate pushing for an end to federal funding of Planned Parenthood, several states have launched investigations into the organization.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement said that “allegations that Planned Parenthood profits in any way from tissue donation is not true.” She later apologized for “the tone” the physicians used in describing abortion procedures and also argued the videos had been heavily edited to distort the truth.

In his letter, Cardinal O’Malley added: “The Catholic Church comes to this issue from a perspective rooted in experience. Catholic charitable agencies and pregnancy help centers have helped countless pregnant women find life-affirming alternatives to abortion.”

Other Catholic leaders across the country have called for defunding Planned Parenthood. In a July 31 statement, the Catholic bishops of Colorado set Aug. 28 aside as “a day of prayer and penance in response to Planned Parenthood’s horrific actions and all those involved in the procurement and use of aborted baby organs.”

Priests for Life also announced that a coalition of religious and pro-life groups plan to lead a “Week of Prayer to End the Evils of Planned Parenthood,” Aug. 22-29.

Several suggested prayers for the week have been posted at www.PrayerCampaign.org.

 

Related:
Planned Parenthood and The Invisible Children