I’m not smart enough to go through Ohio’s budget and figure out if it’s a good budget or not. So I do shorthand. Who’s happy? Who’s not?
In this case NARAL and Planned Parenthood are screaming. So therefore I know it’s a good budget.
It seems that the state will show a preference for funding crisis pregnancy centers over Planned Parenthood. This would seem to be a very big deal. This seems to be an end around of the whole defund Planned Parenthood effort that’s so irked the Obama administration. They’re not saying we’re not going to fund Planned Parenthood, they just say we’re going to fund others first.
The Ohio Senate on Thursday passed a $61.7 billion two-year budget which includes controversial amendments that would limit federal funds for Planned Parenthood and ban public hospitals from having patient transfer agreements with abortion clinics.
The state’s budget bill, which passed by a vote of 23-10, will go before the House next Wednesday.
The amendment changes the way the state allocates money it receives from the federal government, opting to fund some crisis pregnancy centers – which counsel against abortions – before funding Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest provider of abortions.
Ohio Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, has been pushing for the amendment as it seeks to have Planned Parenthood defunded.
“This proposal will wreak havoc on tens of thousands of patients that rely on these facilities, and could result in 11 counties losing access to subsidized family planning services entirely,” said Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.
Let’s hope this gets through and acts as a model.
Hey, if NARAL hates it, let’s do it again. And again.
