Remember those doctored Planned Parenthood videos made last year by some quacks who are now being indicted? Well, Ohio lawmakers who eagerly jumped on the bash Planned Parenthood bandwagon last fall are nearing completion on their effort to deprive the health services organization of $1.3 million in funding it usually gets from the Ohio Department of Health. The state Senate was expected to vote on the House-passed bill Wednesday afternoon. Ann Sanner reports:
The funding, which is mostly federal, supports initiatives for HIV testing, breast and cervical cancer screenings and prevention of violence against women.
The bill would restrict such funds from going to entities that perform or promote abortions, their affiliates and those that contract with an entity that performs abortions. It would not affect the overall amount of money available for such initiatives, just who could get it.
Just to put an exclamation point on the impact the bill would have on the services Planned Parenthood provides:
In 2015, the money Ohio is proposing to strip from Planned Parenthood paid for 47,137 sexually transmitted infection tests, 3,620 HIV tests, and Violence Against Women Act education programs, and supported 2,780 patients in the state’s infant mortality reduction program. In two counties with high poverty – Mahoning and Trumbull – Planned Parenthood has run the state’s infant mortality reduction program for two decades. To health advocates, the results of taking those resources away could be catastrophic.
“If Planned Parenthood goes away as a provider, there will be a void of services in our community, and we don’t have the capacity to fill that void,” said Kelli Arthur Hykes, the health policy director for the department of health in Columbus. “Anything that changes the balance of what’s available right now, we’re afraid it could be disastrous for our community.
Not so, says GOP presidential candidate and Ohio governor John Kasich, who clearly knows better than the local department of health official. Here he is commenting on the bill last fall from New Hampshire, where he's practically a resident now.