Last Friday, a group of 100 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence reflecting on the alignment of pro-life majorities in both chambers of Congress, and the new pro-life administration in the 2016 election.
“We are eager to collaborate with you on a broad range of solutions to enhance our economy and strengthen our national security,” they wrote. “Also of critical importance to us is advancing the rights of unborn children and their mothers, which is why we write to you today. The alignment of pro-life majorities in Congress and your election to the White House presents a critical opportunity to protect our most vulnerable from the brutal act of abortion and affirm that women deserve better than abortion.”
Among the 100 who signed the letter were Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Diane Black (R-Tenn.), Mia Love (R-Utah), Steve King (R-Iowa), Doug Collins (R-Ga.), and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.). Below is the text of the entire letter:
We are writing to congratulate you on your election and look forward to working closely with the very capable people you have selected to serve on your team. We are eager to collaborate with you on a broad range of solutions to enhance our economy and strengthen our national security.
Also of critical importance to us is advancing the rights of unborn children and their mothers, which is why we write to you today. The alignment of pro-life majorities in Congress and your election to the White House presents a critical opportunity to protect our most vulnerable from the brutal act of abortion and affirm that women deserve better than abortion.
We appreciate and respect your reimplementation and expansion of the Mexico City Policy, as you have already demonstrated your commitment to a consistent, government-wide policy: taxpayer dollars should not fund abortion or the abortion industry—either domestically or internationally. We look forward to continuing to work with your administration to advance these goals and appreciate the presence of senior administration officials at today’s March for Life.
We support—and are deeply grateful for—your commitment to nominating pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Forty-four years ago, the court stripped away protection for unborn children and their mothers, and since then nearly 60 million precious lives have been killed through abortion—a number that equates to the entire population of England. Abortion is violence against children and injures women. Women and children deserve better—much better. Encouraged by your strong commitment to place pro-life justices on the court, we look forward to a day when we have a court that recognizes the danger of abortion to both women and their babies.
We share your commitment to enacting the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end painful late abortions nationwide. We know that children suffer excruciating pain from dismemberment abortion. Piece by piece, a child is literally pulled apart—this is the reality of abortion. While some children in America are afforded state-of-the-art care through fetal surgeries and well-equipped NICUs, other children at the exact same stage of development are ripped apart in the sixth, seventh, eighth and even ninth month of pregnancy. Recognizing the medical evidence that unborn children feel pain, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act would establish affirmative protections for those children before birth.
We share your commitment to ending taxpayer funding of the abortion industry. Planned Parenthood is big abortion—this organization alone has killed over 7 million innocent babies, about 320,000 children per year, all while receiving roughly $500 million in annual taxpayer funding. In 2015, Congress sent a budget reconciliation bill to President Obama that disqualified the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds as long as it continues doing abortions. Those funds would have instead been allocated to community health centers, which provide a broader range of preventive health care services to women and outnumber Planned Parenthood clinics by a margin of 20 to 1. President Obama vetoed this bill. We look forward to your signature enacting this life-affirming policy when Congress sends you its budget reconciliation bill early in 2017.
We share your commitment to making the Hyde Amendment permanent and government-wide law. The Hyde Amendment has saved an estimated 2 million innocent lives by stopping taxpayer dollars from being used to fund most abortions and abortion coverage through the Medicaid program. Among its many failures, Obamacare does not conform to the Hyde Amendment, and so taxpayer dollars are flowing to over 1,000 abortion-covering health plans according to a 2014 audit. We look forward to working with you to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a program that does not include subsidies for abortion.
Millions of Americans share our commitment to these goals and are eagerly waiting for us to do our part after this historic election. We look forward to advancing these efforts with you, and making America a place where unborn children and their mothers are treated with compassion and justice.
Thank you for the important consideration and leadership you will provide to these concerns.
