WASHINGTON—Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James released the following statement in response to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Protect Life Rule, which revises regulations for the Title X family planning program.

“We are grateful to President Trump and Secretary Azar for making the Protect Life Rule a reality.

“The rule will finally separate a significant source of taxpayer funding from facilities that commit or refer out for abortions. Planned Parenthood centers in particular will be affected and will have to physically and financially separate from the abortion side of the business or forgo tens of millions in taxpayer funding.

“This is a tremendous step toward getting taxpayers out of the abortion business, but two challenges still remain: 1) this rule, though fully within the authority of the administration, will be immediately challenged by the abortion industry and held up in court by liberal judges before it can be implemented; and 2) the biggest pot of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood still remains intact: hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funds annually.

“After the allegations of Planned Parenthood harvesting and trafficking in the body parts of the babies it aborted, after the decades of alleged child sexual abuse that Planned Parenthood has covered up, and after its own reporting shows that most of its health services are declining while it continues to increase abortions, I am confounded as to why any member of Congress thinks Planned Parenthood is a good—let alone moral—use of taxpayer money.

“Congress must finish the job that President Trump has started and fully and finally get the taxpayer out of America’s biggest abortion business.”