As a member of Congress, Pence sponsored the first bill to defund Planned Parenthood in 2007 — and did so repeatedly through 2011, when it finally passed the House.
I happened to have interviewed Pence about his criticism of Planned Parenthood that year, and it was clearly an issue he was passionate about. He had been working to defund the organization for years at that point, even while his colleagues focused on other issues.
"If Planned Parenthood wants to be involved in providing counseling services and HIV testing, they ought not be in the business of providing abortions," Pence told me, sitting in his congressional office. "As long as they aspire to do that, I’ll be after them."
…After his first attempt to defund Planned Parenthood failed — offered as an amendment to an appropriations bill in 2007 — he got to work setting the groundwork for future bills. He requested a Government Accountability Office report on how much money abortion clinics receive from the federal government to bolster his case.
Federal law already prohibits government spending from paying for abortions. But abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood have traditionally received money for other routine health care services they provide, like STD testing or annual exams to provide birth control.
But Pence felt like he could make it harder for Planned Parenthood clinics to provide abortions if they were losing their other revenue streams.
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/14/12189446/mike-pence-planned-parenthood