Lawmakers renew call to defund Planned Parenthood following release of new videos

The new undercover videos about Planned Parenthood have prompted pro-life legislators to renew their call to defund the abortion provider.

The series of videos released by pro-life investigative group Live Action showed Planned Parenthood employees turning away women who are seeking prenatal care and ultrasound.

At a press conference on Thursday, Tennessee Rep. Diane Black stated that the video highlighted the "urgent need to invest in women's healthcare over abortion by defunding Planned Parenthood," Life Site News reported.

"As we see in these investigative videos recorded by Live Action, Planned Parenthood is not about preventative healthcare. This is an abortion enterprise," Black stated.

The voicemails and website of Planned Parenthood stated that they provide prenatal, care but the undercover journalist who sought the service were turned away by the abortion provider's employees.

According to Live Action, only five out of 97 Planned Parenthood facilities across the U.S. were willing to check on the health of the baby in the womb. When the investigators sought ultrasounds, only three out of 68 facilities were willing to offer the service separately from abortions.

Live Action reported that Planned Parenthood started removing the term "prenatal" from its websites following the release of the undercover videos.

Also present at the press conference was Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner, who is a co-sponsor of the Conscience Protection Act of 2017, which aims to protect health service providers that refuse to provide abortion services. She cited polls indicating that Americans are in favor of the legislation, as well as the ban on abortions after 20 weeks of gestation.

"Congress has a sincere duty not only to defund abortion but to radically change the conversation around life," Wagner said, as reported by World. "We will continue to fight until abortion is not only illegal but abortion is unthinkable."

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, another Republican congresswoman from Missouri, pointed out Planned Parenthood's lack of adoption referrals, prenatal care, and ultrasounds for women who wanted to keep their baby.

"The mission of this organization is to take life, not provide health care for women and their children ... two patients enter their clinics, and only one leaves alive," said Hartzler, according to The Daily Signal.