A Ohio legislative panel today approved legislation that will revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The vote is the first step in a long legislative battle to protect Ohio taxpayers.
The Ohio Health & Aging Committee voted this afternoon 11-9 to send HB 298 to the floor of the state legislature. HB 298 would prioritize state family planning funding to entities that best provide comprehensive health care to women and away from entities that do abortions, like Planned Parenthood.
“Planned Parenthood has a monopoly on public funding, but they provide only a fraction of health services to women in Ohio. Local health districts, community health centers and community action agencies provide a vast majority of health care services to low-income and uninsured women and that is where this funding will go,” said Legislative Director, Stephanie Krider, for Ohio Right to Life.
House Bill 298 when enacted will priorities limited tax funds in the following order: local health departments, community health centers, community action agencies, private primary care providers and Planned Parenthood clinics. The result creates an even playing field enabling other health care centers access to tax dollars that Planned Parenthood monopolizes.
“Ohio women spoke clearly on election night by re-electing every pro-life State Senator in Ohio, increasing majorities for the pro-life Ohio House of Representatives and soundly defeating Issue 2 which was strongly supported by Planned Parenthood and their allies,” continued Krider. “Additionally, in the most competitive congressional race in Ohio, Ohio Right to Life endorsed Congressman Jim Renacci who defeated Planned Parenthood endorsed Congresswoman Betty Sutton. The facts are crystal clear, Ohio is a pro-life state and votes pro-life for our statewide officeholders.”
Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser told LifeNews SBA List members in Ohio sent a wave of nearly 3,000 messages encouraging their representatives to support the legislation.
“In one year, Planned Parenthood ended the lives of 329,445 children and ill-served their mothers – that’s not comprehensive whole-woman care no matter how Planned Parenthood executives try to spin it,” she said. “We applaud the undaunted Ohio state representatives who, acting on the will of the pro-life citizens of the Buckeye State, are wasting no time in working to get taxpayers out of the abortion business. Planned Parenthood and other abortion-centered businesses simply do not need or deserve taxpayer dollars.”
Dannenfelser told LifeNews: “This legislation does not reduce family planning funding by one cent – it simply ensures that taxpayer funding is prioritized to agencies that can best serve the needs of Ohio women. It is a health care upgrade for women at no additional cost to the taxpayer, and we urge the state legislature to pass this bill.”
“Led by pro-life Representatives Kristina Roegner, Cliff Rosenberger and Chairman Lynn Wachtmann, this legislative initiative embraces the critical need to provide limited taxpayer dollars to health care centers that support low-income women and their children,” says Ohio Right to Life. “We strongly encourage our pro-life supporters to attend the hearing and to help further our efforts.”
“With over 300 Ohio-based health care centers in desperate need of funding, it is critical to pass this legislation which will ensure the health care needs of women and their children are met,” said Mike Gonidakis, President of Ohio Right to Life, at that time.
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion business, performing 329,445 abortions in 2010 alone. In 2010, abortions made up 91 percent of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services, while prenatal care and adoption referrals accounted for only 8.6 percent (31,098) and 0.2 percent (841), respectively. For every adoption referral, Planned Parenthood performed 392 abortions.
Since 2011, 10 states have enacted legislation or have taken administrative action to redirect taxpayer funding away from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. An additional four states have introduced legislation.
In April, the Ohio House of Representatives defeated an effort by pro-life advocates to revoke taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood.
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An amendment had been added to a bill to shut down taxpayer financing of the nation’s biggest abortion business but the state House removed a pro-life amendment from Governor Kasich’s Mid-Biennium Review legislation. The amendment would have defunded Planned Parenthood in Ohio but the House Finance Committee stripped the pro-life amendment, therefore terminating any opportunity to fast track this initiative.
Gonidakis said pro-abortion lobbyists “will recklessly claim that women will be denied health care with the enactment of this legislation.”
“In reality, there are over 130 health districts and over 160 community health centers in Ohio that provide family planning services as well as comprehensive primary care. Groups like Planned Parenthood are only attempting to protect the taxpayer money that they have received for decades,” he said.
ACTION: Contact members of the Ohio legislature at https://www.legislature.state.oh.us/ to urge support for the bill.
