http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...ng/article_30db9956-fdbe-51b6-8a47-eeb1ec61fb
JEFFERSON CITY • Planned Parenthood says it will fight back against the Republican-led Legislature’s decision to eliminate funding to its operations in Missouri.
In a statement Friday, Mary Kogut, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, condemned the maneuver by lawmakers and suggested a court fight is in the offing.
“Planned Parenthood’s promise: ‘These doors stay open,’” the statement noted. “Planned Parenthood will continue to provide patients compassionate, high-quality health care and fight back against reckless attempts to deny Missouri women, men, youth and families basic health care in the name of an extremist agenda.”
Missouri is poised to become the latest of more than a dozen states to eliminate or reduce funding to the organization.
In approving a budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, the Missouri Senate on Thursday joined the House in stripping about $380,000 from the abortion provider, which has seen similar moves by lawmakers and governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida.
Supporters said Missouri residents can go to clinics that provide the same or more services, but not abortions.
“They can still go to Planned Parenthood. We just don’t have to send Missourians’ tax dollars there,” said Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane. “Missourians have been very vocal about not wanting their tax dollars to go for services they don’t agree with.”
Opponents say the move would limit access to an important health resource.
“You are going to keep women, particularly low-income women, from getting the service they need by putting this in the budget this way,” said Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur.
The cut is contained in a package of 13 budget bills awaiting final review in both the House and Senate.
The state’s proposed spending plan took an estimated $8 million in federal money out of a health care program and replaced it with state money. Without the federal money, supporters say the state no longer has to abide by federal rules regarding funding for the services provided by Planned Parenthood.
“Essentially, we now have the ability to say where that money goes,” said Sen. Kurt Schaefer, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. “When it is a state-funded program, the state can dictate where those funds go.”
The maneuver to cut the organization’s allocation of about $380,000, however, will come at a cost to the state of $8 million in federal money.
In addition to the funding cut, Schaefer also is targeting Planned Parenthood on a different level.
On Thursday, a committee endorsed his plan to compel Kogut to appear before the Senate on contempt charges related to an investigation that began last year after videos were released alleging the organization illegally profits from the sale of fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood says the videos were highly edited and two people have been indicted for manipulating the videos.
Schaefer, a Republican candidate for attorney general from Columbia, said the budget move was not punitive.
“I don’t think we’re punishing anybody. I think what we’re doing is recognizing there is a large percentage of the population of Missouri that does not want their tax dollars to go to a facility that provides abortion, especially when you have other entities that provide those same services, and more services to that population,” he said. “If someone wants to go to Planned Parenthood, that’s their prerogative. The question is, ‘Do you have to make taxpayers pay for it?’ And the answer to that question is, ‘No. You don’t.”
In its statement, Planned Parenthood called the legislative action “a politically motivated attack.”
JEFFERSON CITY • Planned Parenthood says it will fight back against the Republican-led Legislature’s decision to eliminate funding to its operations in Missouri.
In a statement Friday, Mary Kogut, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, condemned the maneuver by lawmakers and suggested a court fight is in the offing.
“Planned Parenthood’s promise: ‘These doors stay open,’” the statement noted. “Planned Parenthood will continue to provide patients compassionate, high-quality health care and fight back against reckless attempts to deny Missouri women, men, youth and families basic health care in the name of an extremist agenda.”
Missouri is poised to become the latest of more than a dozen states to eliminate or reduce funding to the organization.
In approving a budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, the Missouri Senate on Thursday joined the House in stripping about $380,000 from the abortion provider, which has seen similar moves by lawmakers and governors in Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida.
Supporters said Missouri residents can go to clinics that provide the same or more services, but not abortions.
“They can still go to Planned Parenthood. We just don’t have to send Missourians’ tax dollars there,” said Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane. “Missourians have been very vocal about not wanting their tax dollars to go for services they don’t agree with.”
Opponents say the move would limit access to an important health resource.
“You are going to keep women, particularly low-income women, from getting the service they need by putting this in the budget this way,” said Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur.
The cut is contained in a package of 13 budget bills awaiting final review in both the House and Senate.
The state’s proposed spending plan took an estimated $8 million in federal money out of a health care program and replaced it with state money. Without the federal money, supporters say the state no longer has to abide by federal rules regarding funding for the services provided by Planned Parenthood.
“Essentially, we now have the ability to say where that money goes,” said Sen. Kurt Schaefer, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. “When it is a state-funded program, the state can dictate where those funds go.”
The maneuver to cut the organization’s allocation of about $380,000, however, will come at a cost to the state of $8 million in federal money.
In addition to the funding cut, Schaefer also is targeting Planned Parenthood on a different level.
On Thursday, a committee endorsed his plan to compel Kogut to appear before the Senate on contempt charges related to an investigation that began last year after videos were released alleging the organization illegally profits from the sale of fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood says the videos were highly edited and two people have been indicted for manipulating the videos.
Schaefer, a Republican candidate for attorney general from Columbia, said the budget move was not punitive.
“I don’t think we’re punishing anybody. I think what we’re doing is recognizing there is a large percentage of the population of Missouri that does not want their tax dollars to go to a facility that provides abortion, especially when you have other entities that provide those same services, and more services to that population,” he said. “If someone wants to go to Planned Parenthood, that’s their prerogative. The question is, ‘Do you have to make taxpayers pay for it?’ And the answer to that question is, ‘No. You don’t.”
In its statement, Planned Parenthood called the legislative action “a politically motivated attack.”
