After failing at the federal level, opponents of Planned Parenthood have taken their battle to the states. Efforts are under way in Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Texas to defund the organization of all taxpayer money,
Fox News reports.
Planned Parenthood receives a variety of government funding, including Medicaid and local taxes. Bills being considered in the states would eliminate all streams of government funding. Federal law prohibits Planned Parenthood from using federal funds funneled through states to pay for abortion, Fox reported.
Efforts to defund Planned Parenthood could backfire on the states that might lose federal Medicaid funds, Fox quotes experts as saying. "States cannot restrict Medicaid beneficiaries’ freedom of choice of family planning services even if the state is running a managed care program," said Mary Kahn, spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Planned Parenthood contends that abortions make up just 3 percent of its services and that its clinics perform 1 million screenings for cervical cancer, 830,000 breast exams, and 4 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases.
Conservative lawmakers maintain that money Planned Parenthood receives supports abortions indirectly. "If that money goes to Planned Parenthood to use for other purposes, that frees up Planned Parenthood to fund abortions, that's the problem we have with it," Kansas Rep. John Rubin told Fox 4 in Kansas, adding that a majority of Kansas lawmakers support the provision.
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