Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) explained last week while giving an address at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference that the Republican Party does not want to implement pro-life solutions.
Paul explained how his amendment to de-fund Planned Parenthood in 2018 was rejected by Republican leadership because they prioritized massive government spending over protecting life.
“You have Republicans that are more concerned with spending money than protecting the unborn,” Paul said to the audience.
The Republican leaders wanted to curry favor with the Democrats in order to pass a bill to further add to the debt and deficit, and they protected Planned Parenthood to create a bipartisan consensus by the profligacy.
“We still lose in the legislation,” Paul said. “Sometimes we lose because the people who come to you and give you lip service and say, ‘Oh I’m pro-life, I’m pro-life,’ and then they don’t seem to vote that way.”
Paul explained how the situation occurred, to the shock of the pro-life crowd filled with Republicans appalled that their leaders have breached their trust.
Paul explained how the Washington D.C. swamp works: “Last year, I tried to attach to a spending bill a prohibition to have any money spent by Planned Parenthood. You know what happened? They sat me down, and one of the senior Republican senators said, “We cannot have the vote today.” I said, “Why?” He said, “We might win.”’
Paul’s amendment, had it been passed, would have cut off federal funds from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers and given federal funds instead to community health centers that do not perform abortions to provide care.
His comments can be viewed here:
Paul’s comments certainly explain why Republicans always pay lip service to the issue of life on the campaign trail, but rarely do anything to protect it after they are elected into office. Right-to-life is an invaluable wedge issue to use as a fundraising tool, and the GOP intends to prevent a workable solution so they can continue using it as such.
