Nearly 900 Abortion Mills Lost Federal Funding in 2019; More Expected in 2020

AMERICAN LIFE LEAGUE

In October, 2019, LifeSiteNews reported that "nearly 900 medical centers involved in abortion [had] lost federal funding thanks to the Trump administration’s new rules for Title X family planning grants. In short, the new Protect Life Rule made it more difficult for medical centers and organizations to receive funding.

The guidelines and requirements have become more specific, defining a “clear financial and physical separation between Title X-funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning” and [banning] “referral for abortion as a method of family planning.”

Nevertheless, 2019 was a major step in the right direction for the pro-life movement to end abortions in the United States. As we head into another cataclysmic election year, what does 2020 look like?

In 2019, Planned Parenthood, which represents forty-percent of the abortion industry, lost roughly $60 million of it's $563.8 million due to Trump's Protect Life Rule, forcing the organization to leave the Title X Program and file lawsuits against the administration. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the rule, but the court will hear arguments in 2020.

As reported by USA Today, Title X distributes $260 million in family planning grants to medical clinics annually. Although the 2019 decrease has not been published, our team at The Daily Knight estimate that the Trump Administration cut $150 million in funding from the abortion industry, that is nearly sixty-percent of the historical Title X annual distribution.

Expect to see the same operations defunded in 2020, amounting to a $300 million decrease in two years, forcing many small abortion centers and hospital associated abortion centers to close their doors. It won't take a genius to foresee that the 2020 elections, Presidential, Gubernatorial, and Congressional, will experience a major emphasis on abortion.

And, the finances are not even half of the battle in 2020.

In addition to the Planned Parenthood appeal in the 9th Circuit Court, there are several other legal battles over abortion that will play out over the 2020 election year. The Supreme Court will hear arguments for and against the Louisiana law that requires abortions to be performed within 30 miles of a hospital. The court struck down a similar Texas law in 2016, but, with a more conservative bench, some hope that the Louisiana case will be the first of many challenges to Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

On the topic of the Supreme Court, the concern over the health and longevity of the 86-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The threat of losing another presidential election and seat on the bench, making an easy 6-3 conservative vote majority on the Supreme Court, makes the overturn of Roe v. Wade probable and greatly galvanizes the democratic base.

The last fight to watch in 2020 is the support for and attacks against the 1977 Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortions, except for cases of incest, rape, or when the life of the mother is at risk. The Hyde Amendment is closely linked to the financial side of the argument and the Trump Administration's efforts to remove federal grants to medical centers and organizations like Planned Parenthood that will inevitably be used to support their abilities to provide abortions. Former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the front-runners in the Democratic presidential primaries, has already asserted his support to repeal the amendment.

It is clear that 2020 will mark another year over the battle for abortion in the United States. As the Trump Administration continues to find ways to turn of the federal faucet to the abortion industry, expect them to get desperate and violent.