{"id":34522,"date":"2025-07-19T03:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/?p=34522"},"modified":"2025-07-19T04:03:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T04:03:45","slug":"sorry-planned-parenthood-congress-doesnt-have-to-give-you-a-dime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cincinnatirighttolife.org\/sorry-planned-parenthood-congress-doesnt-have-to-give-you-a-dime\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorry, Planned Parenthood. Congress Doesn’t Have to Give You a Dime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Terence Jeffrey, originally published July 10, 2025, The Daily Signal<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they unambiguously gave Congress control over federal spending. But\u00a0Planned Parenthood<\/a>\u00a0is now suing the federal government in denial of this fact\u2014claiming the Constitution requires the federal government to give money to organizations that are abortion providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution plainly states: \u201cNo money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To constitutionally enact such an appropriation, both\u00a0houses of Congress<\/a>\u00a0must pass it by a majority vote and get it signed by the president. If the president vetoes the bill\u2014as he is empowered to do under Article 1, Section 7, Clause 2 of the Constitution\u2014both houses must approve it by a two-thirds vote for it to become law.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

On July 1, the Senate voted 51-50 to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. On July 3, the House passed it 218-214. On July 4, President Donald Trump signed it into law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 7, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, and the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah sued Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, claiming that a provision in this law was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These plaintiffs asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where the case was filed, to grant a temporary restraining order stopping the law\u2019s enforcement against them while their case proceeded. Judge Indira Talwani complied, issuing a\u00a014-day restraining order<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, Planned Parenthood is challenging Section 71113 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which\u00a0stops federal Medicaid funding<\/a>\u00a0for \u201cprohibited entities\u201d for one year. The law defines these \u201cprohibited entities\u201d as \u201can entity, including its affiliates, subsidiaries, successors and clinics\u201d that is a nonprofit, and is \u201cprimarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care; and provides for abortions\u201d other than in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is endangered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abortion-providing \u201cprohibited entities\u201d that would be denied federal funding under this provision must also have received more than $800,000 in\u00a0Medicaid funding<\/a>\u00a0in fiscal year 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under its appropriation power, Congress is simply declining to provide federal funding to these abortion providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, the Planned Parenthood organizations argued that they were acting \u201cto vindicate rights secured by the Constitution\u2019s Bill of Attainder Clause and by the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 3 of the Constitution states, \u201cNo Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.\u201d The Congress.gov website notes that, \u201cA bill of attainder is legislation that imposes punishment on a specific person or group of people without a judicial trial.\u201d Section 71113 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act does not impose \u201cpunishment \u2026 without a judicial trial.\u201d It deals with appropriations\u2014an indisputable power of Congress\u2014and declines to provide federal Medicaid funding to abortion providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe object is apparent upon the slightest examination,\u201d Justice Joseph Story wrote of the appropriations clause in his \u201cCommentaries on the Constitution\u201d published in 1833. \u201cIt is to secure regularity, punctuality, and fidelity, in the disbursements of the public money. As all the taxes raised from the people, as well as the revenues arising from other sources, are to be applied to the discharge of the expenses, and debts, and other engagements of the government, it is highly proper, that congress should possess the power to decide, how and when any money should be applied for these purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current Congress decided\u2014in a constitutionally enacted law signed by the president\u2014that federal Medicaid funds should not go to major abortion providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Planned Parenthood lawsuit also argues that what it calls the \u201cDefund Provision\u201d in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act violates its rights under the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Defund Provision,\u201d says their lawsuit, \u201cviolates the equal protection component of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by irrationally singling out Planned Parenthood for unfavorable treatment.\u201d The Fifth Amendment due process clause says: \u201cNo person shall be \u2026 deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.\u201d In the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Congress did not deprive abortion providers \u201cof life, liberty, or property,\u201d it deprived them of taxpayer-funded subsidies\u2014through a constitutionally enacted law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Planned Parenthood Federation of America] and its Members engage in First Amendment protected activity,\u201d says the Planned Parenthood lawsuit. \u201cThey do so by advocating for access to sexual and reproductive health care, including the right to safe and legal abortion. Members associate with [Planned Parenthood Federation of America] and one another to speak and act collectively where appropriate, and in furtherance of their common goals, exercising the associative right \u2018implicit in the right to engage in activities protected by the First Amendment.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe statute,\u201d says Planned Parenthood\u2019s lawsuit, \u201cplainly defunds Planned Parenthood Members because of their participation in the nation\u2019s most high-profile membership association of abortion providers, known for its advocacy for abortion rights and access across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statute, however, does not prohibit abortion providers from associating with each other or speaking out in favor of terminating the lives of innocent unborn children. It simply stops giving them federal funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planned Parenthood\u2019s latest annual report indicated that in fiscal year 2023 its affiliates performed 402,230 abortion procedures. That, as noted by the Family Research Council, equals an average of 1,102 innocent unborn babies terminated per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Constitution does not compel Congress to fund abortion providers. Congress did the right thing in voting not to fund them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terence P. Jeffrey is investigative editor for the Daily Caller News Foundation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Terence Jeffrey, originally published July 10, 2025, The Daily Signal When the Founders wrote the Constitution, they unambiguously gave Congress control over federal spending. But\u00a0Planned Parenthood\u00a0is now suing the federal government in denial of this fact\u2014claiming the Constitution requires the federal government to give money to organizations that are abortion providers. Article 1, Section…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSorry, Planned Parenthood. 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