Vote on Pence Amendment TODAY
The Pence Amendment would deny all federal funding to Planned Parenthood and its affiliates for the rest of the fiscal year. It would not impact the amount of funding given to family planning programs under Title X; it simply makes Planned Parenthood ineligible for those funds.
Some Republicans are proposing to suspend all Title X funds as a cost-cutting measure. A lot of people are angry about that, and abortion advocates are eagerly lumping the Pence Amendment together with that, calling both “anti-woman.” Remember that the Pence Amendment is not the same bill! Simply put, the Pence Amendment will solve the Planned Parenthood funding problem without decreasing the amount spent on legitimate women’s health programs under Title X. Any money Planned Parenthood loses will be diverted to eligible health providers.
Via Jill Stanek, here are Congressman Pence’s comments on the amendment:
I'd be interested to see where exactly the reassigned money goes. What if some other health providers that don't provide abortions start to become more nationally recognized due to increased funding? That would be nice.
That's a great point.
Also, can you give me a link explaining how the Pence Amendment does not decrease funding, but rather re-allocates it? I can't find much about it.
A friend of mine found the text of the legislation: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.217: