Ohio bill to cut Planned Parenthood money

This article contains a correction. Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms. 

COLUMBUS – State lawmakers want to defund Planned Parenthood by stripping away federal money given to abortion providers.

Proposed changes from Rep. Margaret Conditt, R-Liberty Township, and Rep. Bill Patmon, D-Cleveland, would prevent money from four federal sources, including the Violence Against Women Act, from being distributed to organizations that provide or promote abortions. The proposal is aimed at Planned Parenthood, which has drawn ire from anti-abortion groups for an undercover video showing a Planned Parenthood official talking about selling organs from aborted fetuses.

“(The bill) was originated based on the shocking revelations based on what Planned Parenthood is doing with aborted baby parts,” Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said.

Planned Parenthood receives about $1.3 million each year from Ohio. Gonidakis wants to strip a significant amount of that money away.

The changes, which will be introduced Thursday, would cut off money for organizations that perform abortions, promote abortions or contract with entities that do. That would include Planned Parenthood, which had three abortion clinics: one in Mount Auburn and two near Columbus.

“We are committed to saving the unborn, and this bill just continues that commitment,” Conditt said, adding that money for violence against women, breast and cervical cancer prevention, and infertility prevention should not be used to pay for abortion clinics.

Instead, that money should be used to pay for efforts that improve Ohio’s abysmal infant mortality rate, Conditt said. Numbers released Monday showed fewer infants died in 2013 than in the previous year, but the state has not seen a significant change in infant deaths since 1997.

But Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio officials say they provide health services that help children and women, such as cancer screenings, Stephanie Kight, president and CEO, said in a statement.

“While a shrill minority uses deplorable tactics, from deceptive videos to hate filled rallies, to attack the care women and our partners depend on us for every day, we have been and will continue to be there with compassionate care,”  Kight said.

Earlier this month, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine launched a probe into whether the clinics were disposing of aborted fetuses properly.

Kellie Copeland, president of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said Ohio leaders are using heavily edited videos as an excuse to cut out money for Planned Parenthood.

“Making critical health programs less available to Ohio women and families is shameful,” Copeland said. “It proves that they are truly anti-choice extremists and that they will go to any length to prevent abortions.”

The proposed cuts come after changes in the state budget that could threaten Cincinnati’s remaining abortion provider. Clinics, like the one in Mount Auburn, would have 60 days to obtain an exception to a state law that requires abortion clinics to have a patient-transfer agreement with a private hospital, called a “variance.”