Rapp Calls on Congress to Defund Big Abortion

May 13, 2025

Planned Parenthood’s cancer screenings, breast exams and pap smears fall more than 70%
HARRISBURG — Joining over 180 pro-life legislators from 49 states, Rep. Kathy L. Rapp (R-Warren/Crawford/Forest), Republican chair of the House Health Committee, sent a letter to members of Congress encouraging them to stop the flow of American tax dollars toward the abortion industry. According to its last annual report, Planned Parenthood alone took the lives of nearly 400,000 babies and received almost $700 million – nearly $2 million a day – from taxpayers in just one year.

The letter addressed to U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Brett Guthrie urges Republicans to include a measure defunding Planned Parenthood and abortion businesses in the budget reconciliation bill which is scheduled for markups on Tuesday. Recent reconciliation bills have included a provision to stop funneling American tax dollars to Big Abortion, falling just one vote short in 2017 when Sen. John McCain voted against the “repeal and replace Obamacare” package.

The letter reads in part:

“As pro-life legislators from across the country who are members of the National Pro-Life Leaders Network, we are deeply concerned with the way that big abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood prey on unborn children and hurt women, all while receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from American taxpayers. With a Republican trifecta in Washington, it is time to use the budget reconciliation process to defund big abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. We urge you to include language in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Finance Committee Budget Reconciliation bills to defund these bad actors.

“Many of our states have already acted to stop state Medicaid dollars from going to Big Abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. It is time for Congress to stop federal Medicaid dollars from going to Big Abortion.”

“Pro-life has always been a big issue for me,” Rapp said. “It’s something I believe down to my very core, and I have always been very disappointed that federal dollars go to support an organization like Planned Parenthood that is happily destroying lives and babies. I believe it is time to send a strong message to our congressional leaders, both in the House and Senate and to the administration, that most Americans do not want to fund Planned Parenthood when women have other resources they can seek out for funding for prenatal health and maternal health. I do not believe that most of our citizens want to support an organization whose main goal is to perform abortions.”

Planned Parenthood has decreased its non-abortion services to women. Since 2010, taxpayer funding has increased 43% while cancer screenings, breast exams and pap smears have all fallen by more than 70%. Planned Parenthood’s contraception services are also down by 39%. Women receive better, more comprehensive care from community health clinics, also known as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). According to a new report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the number of community health clinics outnumber Planned Parenthoods 225-24 in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The New York Times and others have recently documented Planned Parenthood’s record of botched care:
• Planned Parenthood placed an IUD when a woman was pregnant and caused her child to be stillborn.
• A sewage leak in a Nebraska Planned Parenthood was left for days and caused patients to vomit.
• Planned Parenthood incorrectly administered HIV and syphilis tests and ex-staff say they may not have followed up with patients who could have received inaccurate results.
• An 18-year-old Colorado girl died in February from a late-term abortion at Planned Parenthood.

Representative Kathy Rapp
65th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Jake Gillespie
717.772.9834
RepRapp.com / Facebook.com/RepRapp