OHIO DEFUNDS PLANNED PARENTHOOD
BY HEATHER CLARK
SEE: http://christiannews.net/2016/02/23/ohio-defunds-planned-parenthood/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio has become the next state to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood, as its Republican governor has signed a bill into law stripping all state funding and some federal funding from organizations that perform abortions.
H.B. 294 passed the House 59 to 32 last Wednesday after the bill cleared the Senate in January 22-8. It is expected to result in the redistribution of $1.3 million dollars to women’s health organizations that do not offer abortions, with the exceptions of rape, incest and the life of the mother. $250,000 is to be earmarked for infant mortality prevention.
Gov. John Kasich, also a presidential candidate, privately signed the bill into law on Sunday.
Although the legislation does not specifically mention Planned Parenthood, the abortion giant recognized that it would effect the organization. President Cecile Richards claimed that women in the state would be without healthcare due to the move.
“This legislation will have devastating consequences for women across Ohio,” she said in a statement. “John Kasich is proudly eliminating care for expectant mothers and newborns; he is leaving thousands without vital STD and HIV testing, slashing a program to fight domestic violence, and cutting access to essential, basic health care.”
According to reports, the largest service offered by Planned Parenthood in Ohio is testing for sexual diseases. 47,000 STD tests and 3,600 HIV tests were provided to Ohioans last year.
But a statement by Kasich’s office said that the law does not diminish women’s choices for health care as there are 150 other organizations in the state that could possibly receive funding.
“The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has at least 150 other sub-grantees and contractors for the affected grants and projects addressing such issues as new born babies, infant mortality, expectant mothers, violence against women, and minority HIV/AIDS,” the statement said.
“ODH will reallocate funding from ineligible providers under the new law to other currently eligible providers, ranging from local health departments and community organizations to hospitals and universities,” it further outlined.
Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Stephanie Ranade Krider told reporters last month that if Planned Parenthood wants to receive funding, it should stop killing children.
“At the end of the day, Planned Parenthood receives 42 percent of their funding from government sources,” Krider said. “That’s a significant amount of their funds and they are the nation’s largest abortion provider with no apologies for that. Unless they want to stop performing abortions, this is the natural consequence.”
As previously reported, in December, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced that his office had discovered that aborted babies were being picked up from Planned Parenthood by medical waste companies and either steam treated or incinerated and then dumped into a landfill with household and commercial trash.
“Disposing of aborted fetuses from an abortion by sending them to a landfill is callous and completely inhumane,” he said in a statement. “It is important the public be aware that these practices are taking place at these Ohio facilities.”
Accu Medical Waste Service, Inc. in Marietta had been serving the Cincinnati and Columbus Planned Parenthood locations, and had transported the containers of aborted babies to its steam plant where they were autoclaved and then trucked to a landfill in Kentucky.
The medical waste giant Stericycle, which serves the Bedford Heights Planned Parenthood, had been picking up aborted babies from the location and either having them steamed or incinerated, depending on how Planned Parenthood had marked the boxes. The fetal remains were then trucked to Republic Services Carbon Limestone Landfill in Lowellville after being treated.
Planned Parenthood soon sued the state in order to continue its disposal practice.
