Anti-choice politicians in the state of Pennsylvania are attempting to change the way family planning and health care funds for low income women are allocated, putting Planned Parenthood affiliates last in line.
Via PennLive:
[Republican Rep. Daryl] Metcalfe introduced House Bill 2405 that would maintain the state funding for preventative health screenings but give priority it to organizations that provide comprehensive care and not ones he said whose primary function is to conduct abortions…
“Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize abortionists,” Metcalfe said. “The Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priorities Act will structure the law in a way that funding for women’s health will go to providers that are actually focused on providing care for women rather than facilities that are focused on ending the lives of the unborn.”
Pennsylvania isn’t the first state to attempt to “re-prioritize” the funding in a hope that it will run out before it can ever get to Planned Parenthood affiliates and other groups that provide abortions. Ohio recently proposed the same plan as part of its biannual budget, although it was eventually stripped from the bill. It has now been proposed again as a stand alone bill that is pending in a House committee.
The new “re-prioritize” agenda is a clever way to get around the threatened administrative lawsuits that come with declaring Planned Parenthood exempt from inclusion when it comes to family planning funding. This way, a state is unlikely to be sued for discriminating against a particular entity, which is what got the state of Texas in trouble when it pulled funding to the reproductive health provider via its Women’s Health Program.
Should the bill pass without fanfare, expect more states to do the same.
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