Planned Parenthood, the largest recipient of federal Title X Family Planning funds, performed more than 250,000 abortions in 2005 alone, Pence says. The organization gets nearly a third of its $1 billion annual budget from the federal government, he adds.

“It’s alarming to people,” Pence says.

Current law prohibits the use of Title X family planning funds “in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.” Those regulations require some form of separation between federally-funded family planning services and abortions. However, the current regulations do not contain a descriptive standard of what constitutes “separation.” They only require the level of separation to be more than “mere bookkeeping”

Pence says many groups take advantage of those vague requirements.

“Money is fungible,” Pence complains. “They don’t use that money for abortions, but use it to cover other things to free up money to promote and provide abortions. Separation of accounting records and separation of facilities within the same building is not enough.”

Pence points out that his bill exempts hospitals and similar institutions and does not eliminate any federal family-planning funds.

“My bill is not about denying family planning funds,” Pence tells Newsmax. “There is a distinction with a difference among many of my constituents, many of whom will support a woman’s right to an abortion but not make [the taxpayer] pay for it.”

In seeking strict adherence to the law that keeps family-planning money from funding abortions, Pence says he thinks it is time that U.S. domestic policy regarding aligns with U.S. foreign policy on the same issue.

Under the so-called “Mexico City Policy,” the U.S. government precisely restricts funding for abortion providers overseas.

“I think we’ve got a large number of members that believe that we should have what amounts to a domestic Mexico City policy,” Pence says.

World Magazine has a great article today by Jamie Dean about abortion policy. You can check it out here. To view a PDF copy, click here.

Excerpts below:

For Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), it isn't that simple. The pro-life congressman also wants to reduce the number of abortions but said he couldn't support the legislation for one major reason: It sends money to Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the country. He offered an amendment that would prohibit federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood receives more than $300 million in federal funding each year for family-planning services. (That's about one-third of the group's operating budget.) The organization says it abides by federal rules that don't allow the group to use the government funds for abortion services. But Pence says that the funds could be used to offset Planned Parenthood's operational costs, freeing up money for abortion services.

Pence's amendment failed, 189-231, but mustered significant support, including 20 Democrats who voted for the amendment. Congressional Quarterly called the showdown one of the biggest abortion fights since Democrats took over Congress.

Pence told WORLD he plans to introduce the amendment each year, following the example of William Wilberforce, who successfully fought the British slave trade: "He fought slavery and eventually won by taking the profit out of the slave trade."

The congressman hopes his efforts will be bolstered by last month's request by 60 pro-life leaders for Congress to suspend Planned Parenthood's federal funding while one of the group's affiliates in Kansas faces a 107-count criminal complaint (see "One for the books," Nov. 3).