Continuing the trend of ignoring state legislatures who decide to defund Planned Parenthood, President Obama awarded $426,000 yesterday in Federal grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates in North Carolina. The North Carolina Legislature passed a budget adjustment bill on July 3rd that redirected $343,000 in family planning funding away from Planned Parenthood to county health departments that provide comprehensive care.
This is the sixth state that President Obama has interfered with. In June 2011, the Obama Administration threatened to pull $4.3 billion in Medicaid funding from Indiana when their legislature voted to defund Planned Parenthood. New Hampshire’s elected executive council voted to defund Planned Parenthood. In September of 2011 the Obama Administration contracted directly with Planned Parenthood in that state. In March of 2012 the Obama Administration pulled $30 million in Medicaid waiver funds after the Texas Legislature voted to remove Planned Parenthood from the Medicaid waiver program. Earlier this month the Obama Administration bypassed elected officials in Tennessee and contracted directly with Planned Parenthood after they were defunded by the state. Also this month the Obama Administration awarded $3.1 million in federal funds to Planned Parenthood affiliates and other family planning groups in New Jersey, bypassing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s veto of state funding.
The Obama Administration has done this on the heels of a young woman dying after a legal abortion done by Planned Parenthood in Chicago, IL demonstrating his commitment to the abortion industry.
“Yesterday President Obama said he supports Planned Parenthood because he wants his two daughters to be able to ‘control their own health care choices.’ This morning we find that he once again is using euphemisms like ‘choice’ and ‘control’ to trample the rights of states and force pro-life taxpayers to fund the abortion business,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “President Obama’s decision to overrule the North Carolina legislature today marks the third time this month – and the fifth time in the last year – that he has stepped in to contract directly with the nation’s largest abortion provider.
“In 2010 alone, Planned Parenthood ended the lives of 329,445 children and ill-served their mothers—that is what is really meant by the secret code of ‘choice,’ ‘control,’ and ‘health care.’ President Obama and Planned Parenthood are not all about providing health care to women, but rather are concerned only with protecting Planned Parenthood’s role as largest abortion provider in nation. The best proof is Planned Parenthood’s refusal to simply stop performing abortions in order to continue receiving taxpayer funding through the states. The SBA List position is clear: stop providing abortion and we will stop working to eliminate your taxpayer funding.”