Less than one week after Congress passed a massive year-end spending bill that failed to strip Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer dollars, evangelist Franklin Graham announced he is leaving the Republican Party.
âShame on the Republicans and the Democrats for passing such a wasteful spending bill last week,â Graham wrote Monday on Facebook. âAnd to top it off, funding Planned Parenthood!â
Graham, CEO of Samaritanâs Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said Republicansâ failure to defund Planned Parenthood is an âexampleâ of why he is declaring himself an independent.
âThis is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself independent,â Graham wrote. âI have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or Tea Party to do what is best for America.â
In declaring his separation from the Republican party, Graham referenced a string of undercover videos that came out this year showing Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of body parts from aborted babies. Graham compared the actions in those videosâwhich some claim were highly manipulatedâto Nazi concentration camps.
âSeeing and hearing Planned Parenthood talk nonchalantly about selling baby parts from aborted fetuses with utter disregard for human life is reminiscent of Joseph Mengele and the Nazi concentration camps!â he said.
The undercover videos, produced by the Center for Medical Progress, sparked calls by conservatives to defund Planned Parenthood of the more than $528 million it receives in taxpayer dollars. The majority of that money comes from federal reimbursements it receives through Medicaid contracts.
Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing, calling the videos âheavily editedâ and âsecretly recorded.â
Conservatives made stripping Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer dollars a top priority this congressional year yet failed to include any defund provisions in the year-end spending bill.
Democrats praised the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending as a âgood compromise,â highlighting the more than 150 conservative policy riders that they were able to ânixâ from the final agreement.
âIn addition to nixing more than 150 GOP riders, the final agreement will secure major progressive policy successes,â wrote Adam Jentleson, Minority Leader Harry Reidâs deputy chief of staff, on Twitter.
After the spending bill passed, Planned Parenthood touted in a press release that the budget deal included âno new harmful policy riders on womenâs health.â
At the end of his post declaring his separation from the Republican party, Graham called on Christians âacross the country to pray about running for office where they can have an impact.â
Source: The Daily Signal