Politics

Trump aims to defund Planned Parenthood, JD Vance suggests after Butler rally

JD Vance lied about Planned Parenthood, claiming taxpayers pay for late-term abortions when it is illegal to do so. Defunding Planned Parenthood would harm millions of patients seeking cancer screenings and other health care services.

J.D. Vance, planned parenthood
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign rally at Middletown High School, Monday, July 22, 2024, in Middletown, Ohio. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

JD Vance lied about Planned Parenthood, claiming taxpayers pay for late-term abortions when it is illegal to do so. Defunding Planned Parenthood would harm millions of patients seeking cancer screenings and other health care services.

Donald Trumpโ€™s running mate, JD Vance, called for the federal government to defund Planned Parenthood following Trumpโ€™s rally in Butler County on Saturday.ย 

โ€œOn the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean our view is we donโ€™t think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions,” Vance told reporters after Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view.”

It is illegal for federal funds to help provide someone an abortion, and defunding Planned Parenthood, as Vance suggested, would harm millions of women who go to the health centers seeking cancer screenings, birth control and other reproductive health care services.ย 

Planned Parenthood receives most of their federal funding through Medicaid and Title X, which provides funding for birth control and reproductive health care services, and it helps more than 4 million people annually.ย 

In 2023, Planned Parenthood, nationally, provided over 460,000 cancer screenings and prevention procedures, and helped over 2.5 million patients.

โ€œFor JD Vance, itโ€™s not enough to ban abortion. He and Donald Trump want to โ€˜defundโ€™ Planned Parenthood health centers, which would rob millions of people across the country of vital, affordable care,โ€ Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes, said in a statement.ย 

โ€œEvery time JD Vance opens his mouth, he makes it clearer: A potential Trump-Vance administration is the greatest threat to reproductive freedom weโ€™ve seen in a generation. Planned Parenthood Votes will continue to ring the alarm so voters remember exactly what is at stake this November.โ€

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  • Sean Kitchen is the Keystoneโ€™s political correspondent, based in Harrisburg. Sean is originally from Philadelphia and spent five years working as a writer and researcher for Pennsylvania Spotlight.