Biden's Healthcare Ultimatum

Joe Biden is playing dirty with impoverished women’s lives by denying basic healthcare to pro-life states simply because they protect unborn babies from the heinous act of abortion.

Biden and the Democrats frequently complain that pro-life Republicans are not doing enough to develop and expand healthcare access. But according to new reports, the president is actually the one cutting off critical medical services to low-income individuals and families—including birth control and other family planning services.

There has been a chain of states cut off from millions of dollars in federal funding meant to supply Medicaid or Title X family planning services.

The only logical explanation seems to be that these states ban elective abortions, which federal tax dollars are not supposed to fund anyway.

WUSF Public Media reported the following about the Biden administration’s cuts to healthcare funding in Tennessee on Monday, June 3rd:

“Last year, Tennessee received $7.1 million in Title X funding to provide birth control, STI testing and treatment, and other health services to low-income individuals across the state. This year, however, the Biden administration decided to cut off the funds, denying healthcare to thousands of individuals because Tennessee will not refer patients for elective abortions.”

Below is more from the report:

“Biden’s administration, at the end of March, cut off Tennessee’s Title X funds after determining the state health department—which oversees its clinics and was awarded $7.1 million last year—violated federal rules by not counseling patients about abortion. ‘Continued funding is not in the best interest of the government,’ two Department of Health and Human Services officials wrote to Tennessee officials on March 20. The state had more than 100 Title X clinics as of March, according to an HHS directory.”

Oklahoma is stuck in the same rut. Earlier this month, The Federalist reported how the Biden administration repealed a $4.5 million Title X grant to Oklahoma because it protects unborn babies' lives.

Both states are also staunchly pro-life and have banned elective abortions and taxpayer-funded ones. To receive money from Title X, the Biden administration has recently begun requiring states to hold abortions on a pedestal.

Idaho, another devoted pro-life state, could be next on the chopping block. According to WUSF, in late March this year, AG Paul Labrador released a letter stating that “Idaho prohibits Title X providers from referring a woman across state lines to access abortion.”

Title X funds are not supposed to be used for abortions. The program provides family planning services to low-income households, and federal law says that grants may not be used “where abortion is a method of family planning.”

However, in 2021, the Biden administration implemented a new rule that defies the law and requires Title X beneficiaries to refer for abortions. A dozen states sued to challenge the pro-abortion rule, but the courts have yet to rule on this.

Alarmed by the cuts, pro-life lawmakers wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra the week after the states sued, accusing the Biden administration of caring more about abortion than healthcare for women in dire circumstances.

The selected pro-life lawmakers noted that the Title X grants provide healthcare to about 30,000 people annually in Oklahoma alone. Now, innocent people are “caught in the crossfire of HHS's continued work to promote abortion,” they told the federal agency, according to The Federalist.

The letter, signed by U.S. Senators James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin, and Representatives Josh Brecheen, Stephanie Bice, Kevin Hern, Frank Lucas, and Tom Cole, demanded that HHS restore the healthcare funding.

They stated in a meeting: “Abortion is not family planning; it is family destruction,” they told Becerra. “Every abortion takes an unborn child’s life. Oklahoma’s laws protect women and unborn children from the violence of abortion in the interest of promoting families, keeping Oklahomans safe, and protecting life.”

Abortion activists and Democrats have joined forces in accusing and harassing pro-life states for providing insufficient healthcare and scaring away doctors, but these same people are trying to stop pro-life states from providing better healthcare to their citizens.

In 2022, the Biden administration denied a bipartisan request from Texas legislators to increase Medicaid for mothers of newborns. Texas had hoped to expand the program as part of an effort to reduce maternal mortality and save mothers' lives, but Biden declined.

Texas was the first state to defend unborn babies by banning the majority of abortions in 2021. Now, the state prohibits all elective abortions, and pro-life advocates, along with lawmakers, are working to expand support services for families in dire need.

Crucial healthcare should be an issue that unites both Republicans and Democrats, pro-life and pro-abortion activists. But the Biden administration would much rather play politics with people's lives.