Ohio Governor John Kasich today signed a bill that will de-fund Planned Parenthood, which runs approximately one-third of the abortion centers in the Buckeye State. After the Planned Parenthood abortion company was caught in multiple states selling aborted babies and their body parts, several states have taken steps to de-fund it and Ohio is now the 10th state to take steps to end or cut Planned Parenthood funding.
Planned Parenthood runs three abortion centers in the state and every Planned Parenthood clinic refers women for abortions.
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Casey Mattox told LifeNews he is happy Kasich signed the bill.
He said: “Not one more penny should go to Planned Parenthood, a scandal-plagued abortion business that does not provide comprehensive health care services for women. Ohio’s new law terminates funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses, freeing up money for more widely available and more comprehensive low-cost healthcare options for women and families in the state. Taxpayer dollars should not go to organizations with a long track record of abusive and potentially fraudulent billing practices, that have been caught in authenticated undercover videos negotiating prices for baby body parts, and that have repeatedly failed to report the sexual abuse of girls. Ohio is right to end its relationship with organizations undeserving of taxpayer money and unworthy of the taxpayers’ trust.”
Previously, the Ohio state House voted 59-32 to cut Planned Parenthood funding — following a similar vote in the Ohio state Senate last month. Ohio is now the 9th state to take action against Planned Parenthood funding after the expose videos were first released last year.
Last month, legislation to de-fund Planned Parenthood (H.B. 294) was approved by the Ohio Senate on a 22-8 vote. Sponsored by Representatives Margaret Conditt (R-Liberty Township) and Bill Patmon (D-Cleveland), this legislation cuts over $1 million in yearly federal grants to Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion company.
In November, the Ohio House passed the legislation, 62-30 and voted today to concur with minor changes the Senate made to the bill. House Bill 294 now heads to the desk of Governor John Kasich, who has signed 16 Ohio Right to Life initiatives over the last five years and is expected to sign it.
This legislation, which is at the top of Ohio Right to Life’s 2015-2016 legislative agenda, received renewed interest following the release of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials negotiating dollar amounts for aborted babies’ body parts. In December, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine revealed that in Ohio, Planned Parenthood locations are contracting with companies that dump fetal remains in landfills.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately
“This legislation has been at the top of Ohio Right to Life’s legislative agenda for years,” said Stephanie Ranade Krider, executive director of Ohio Right to Life. “Thanks to the thoughtful, careful work of the Ohio House and Senate, the taxpayer dollars of pro-life Ohioans like myself will now be shielded from the abortion industry. This is an incredible victory for the pro-life cause in Ohio and for the national pro-life movement’s collective efforts to de-fund the abortion industry chief, Planned Parenthood.”
“Ohio’s pro-life leaders have shown the public how to respond to the heinous actions of the abortion industry,” said Krider. “With bipartisanship, with compassion, and with moral courage, the House and Senate have delivered to Governor Kasich a piece of legislation that will go down as historical. This legislation will mark the extraordinary moment when Ohio decided to get out of the abortion business.”
A strong majority of Ohio residents want Planned Parenthood to be de-funded and the money redirected to community health centers, according to a new poll.
Pollsters found 64 percent of Ohioans believe that Congress should end taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood, which received more than $528 million in taxpayer funding in 2014.
Even more Ohioans (68 percent) say taxpayers should not subsidize a group liked Planned Parenthood, and the government should redirect funding to the thousands of health clinics across the country that provide comprehensive health care to women and their families.
Casey Mattox, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, testified that the legislation is both constitutional and consistent with applicable federal law. Julie Moore, director of operations for Pregnancy Decision Health Centers in Columbus, testified as a representative of Ohio‘s vast network of pregnancy help centers that assist women facing unplanned pregnancies. Dr. Kathleen Lutter testified as an OB-GYN physician who has practiced medicine for 31 years.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts
The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of all eleven:
- In the first video: Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
- In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.
- In the third video: Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.
- In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200. A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”
- In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”
- In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”
- In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘You want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
- In the eighth video: StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer admits Planned Parenthood sells “a lot of” fully intact aborted babies.
- The ninth video: catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies — including one who “just fell out” of the womb.
- The 10th video: catches the nation’s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts — including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies.The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby body parts for profit.
- Unreleased Videos: Unreleased videos from CMP show Deb Vanderhei of Planned Parenthood caught on tape talking about how Planned Parenthood abortion business affiliates may “want to increase revenue [from selling baby parts] but we can’t stop them…” Another video has a woman talking about the “financial incentives” of selling aborted baby body parts.
- The 11th video catches a Texas Planned Parenthood abortionist planning to sell the intact heads of aborted babies for research. Amna Dermish is caught on tape describing an illegal partial-birth abortion procedure to terminate living, late-term unborn babies which she hopes will yield intact fetal heads for brain harvesting.
