As the healthcare bill makes its way through whatever the Senate is doing with it, one provision is absolutely non-negotiable: The bill needs to defund the nation's largest abortion giant, Planned Parenthood. They committed 328,548 abortions last year, which is equal to one of every three abortions in the country.

Just because the Hyde Amendment states that taxpayer monies cannot be used to directly fund abortion, it does not prohibit tax dollars from paying for the costs to keep the abortion facilities up and running, the salaries of staff, or the medical equipment used for abortions.

What other government contractor takes hundreds of thousands of innocent lives per year and still receives taxpayer dollars?

The list of reasons why Planned Parenthood needs to be immediately defunded is long and egregious.

We know that Planned Parenthood illegally profited from selling the body parts of babies they aborted. Planned Parenthood and their affiliates have even been referred for criminal prosecution by the House of Representatives' Select Panel on Infant Lives as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The abortion giant has defrauded taxpayers out of millions of dollars: In 2009, the Alliance Defending Freedom released an audit that showed affiliates in at least four states were responsible for more than $95 million in waste, abuse, and potential fraud over the course of several years. Planned Parenthood of California was accused of overcharging the state and federal governments by $180 million for birth-control pills. And in 2013, Planned Parenthood was ordered to pay more than a million dollars in restitution because they defrauded taxpayers in Texas.

Planned Parenthood has suffered no reduction in government funding even after they were caught numerous times aiding and abetting sex trafficking of minor girls and covering up statutory rape at many of its affiliates.

Planned Parenthood in Cincinnati, Ohio, was sued after covering up sexual abuse of a minor by her father. In another case in the same state, they failed to report the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old by her soccer coach.

Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains was sued after committing an abortion on a teen girl without parental consent, failing to report child sex abuse, and then returning her to her abuser her step-father.

In California, swim coach Andrew King was allowed to sexually abuse dozens of young girls after Planned Parenthood failed to report child sex abuse when he took a 14-year-old he impregnated there for an abortion.

As if covering up child abuse wasn't horrible enough, women have died because of Planned Parenthood's carelessness, the most recent being Cree Erwin-Sheppard in 2016, who perished after a botched abortion in Michigan.

The abortion giant could care less about the well-being of their patients.

A Kentucky Planned Parenthood broke the law when they started doing unlicensed abortions at their new facility. The Columbia, S.C. Planned Parenthood was cited for 21 health and safety violations and ordered to pay $7,500. They broke HIPAA privacy laws in California when they gave patient information to a vendor, and Planned Parenthood in Delaware was shut down after numerous health violations, including not cleaning their instruments.

Planned Parenthood also knew about the atrocities that Kermit Gosnell was committing at his late-term abortion facility and chose to do nothing.

And here's the kicker to this entire list of atrocities: Planned Parenthood gets more government money every year but serves fewer people. By their own annual reports, between 2006 and 2016, the number of clients served by Planned Parenthood dropped 22.5 percent. Their revenue rose by 33 percent since 2007. Under Cecile Richards' leadership, cancer screenings and prevention services have dropped by 66 percent.

Yet they continue to receive government funding because they spend millions of dollars in Washington and are a force to be reckoned with. Just this past election cycle, Planned Parenthood had a ground operation larger than Hillary Clinton's paid staff and pledged to spend $30 million to elect her. They also gave 99 percent of their donations to Democrats.

But their time is up. Anti-abortion elected officials need to deliver on their promises during the campaign to defund Planned Parenthood. The nonprofit is a corrupt, deceitful, and harmful organization that should not be funded by taxpayers in any way at all.

Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is president of Students for Life of America.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read ourguidelines on submissions here.

Original post:

Defunding Planned Parenthood needs to take priority in the Senate healthcare bill - Washington Examiner