Ohio Sen. and Vice Presidential hopeful JD Vance confirmed to reporters that if he and his running mate, former President Donald Trump win their bid for the White House, they would seek to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The declarations come as abortion and reproductive rights continue to be an awkward topic for the GOP ticket ahead of November.
"On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean our view is we don't think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions," Vance said after Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. "That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view."
The comment comes after Vance and Trump have repeatedly claimed Democrats, led by Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minn. Gov. Tim Walz, would allow for late-term abortion and even the execution of babies after they are born.
"You can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia," Trump said during September's Presidential debate. "He said 'the baby will be born, and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we'll execute the baby."
His bogus assertions were met with a fact-check by Linsey Davis of ABC News, where she asserted "there is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born."
In fact, in 2021, 93.5% of abortions were done at or before 13 weeks' gestation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this year. About 5.7% of abortions were done between 14 and 20 weeks, and 0.9% were performed at or beyond 21 weeks.
Vance's comments also place Planned Parenthood, one of the biggest reproductive health-care providers in the nation, once again at the forefront of abortion discourse and the GOP ticket's recent repositioning on the issue.
A large percentage of Planned Parenthood's funding comes through Medicaid, federal grants or other programs that reimburse their clinics nationwide for providing birth control as well as preventive screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases for low-income Americans who are eligible for free or cost-reduced services through the Title X family planning program, The Washington Post reports.
According to the organization's 2023 annual report, 34% of its revenue comes from government health services reimbursements and grants, 47% from private contributions and 18% from nongovernmental health service revenue.
Reproductive rights have been a political vulnerability for Republicans up and down the ballot. Trump has taken credit for the Supreme Court's 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the GOP has long run on a platform to curtail reproductive rights in the country. But in the last few weeks, they have softened its messaging in efforts to appeal to the broader electorate.
Trump has recently said he would not sign a federal abortion ban and that decisions about abortion should be up to the states, a rhetoric that only came about after the decision to overturn Roe proved to be widely unpopular. Similarly, an NBC News poll from September indicated that 54% of registered voters think Harris would be better at dealing with abortion, compared to Trump's 33%.
In response to Vance's comments, Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood's super PAC, said federal funds cannot be used to provide abortion care at any point in pregnancy and warned that taking those funds away from the organization would "rob millions of people across the country of vital, affordable care."
Ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood "would only deepen and expand the public health crisis we're already in thanks to Donald Trump, causing more people to suffer and die for lack of basic reproductive care," Lawson said in a statement.
The Harris campaign also took the opportunity to denounce Trump and Vance's stance on abortion. In a statement, Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the campaign said that Vance "made it clear" that a "Trump-Vance administration will defund Planned Parenthood and deny millions of women basic health care, including birth control, cancer screenings and even prenatal care."
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