WASHINGTON – “Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and ‘gender transition’ services with their tax dollars,” said Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop Robert E. Barron, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth. In recognition of last week’s committee markups of the U.S. House of Representatives’ budget reconciliation bill, and in anticipation of its being voted on in the House in the days ahead, the bishops also urged Congress to support authentic healthcare for vulnerable women and children.

“For decades, Planned Parenthood has received government money and offered low-income women one terrible option: to end the lives of their babies. More recently, they have used the same taxpayer funds to expand their destructive offerings, by promoting gender ideology and providing puberty blockers and hormones to minors, turning them into lifelong patients in the process. Americans should not be forced to subsidize abortions and ‘gender transition’ services with their tax dollars, and we applaud measures that will finally help to defund Planned Parenthood. We encourage greater support for authentic, life-affirming healthcare providers that serve mothers and their children in need. We urge all members of Congress and the Administration to work in good faith to protect vulnerable women and children from mutilating ‘gender transition’ services and the scourge of abortion.”

Since January, several USCCB bishop chairmen wrote addressing multiple anticipated issues in the budget reconciliation process, calling for protection of the dignity of life and the poor and vulnerable. Archbishop Borys Gudziak, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development also expressed the importance of preserving Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Child Tax Credit, and other programs for those in need, in the reconciliation legislation. Bishop Thomas and Bishop Barron also urged members of Congress to defund the abortion and “gender transition” industries. The bishops continue to encourage the public to contact their members of Congress on these issues.