State and National Groups Join Ohio Right to Life to Defund Planned Parenthood
Ohio Right to Life Welcomes the Susan B. Anthony List and Texas Right to Life
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: Tuesday, February 28, 2012
PHONE: (614) 547-0099 ext. 309
(COLUMBUS, OH) – Today, Ohio Right to Life and its national and state partners will testify in support of House Bill 298, legislation that will direct tax dollars away from organizations such as Planned Parenthood. HB 298, sponsored by Representatives Kristina Roegner and Cliff Rosenberger, will prioritize public funding towards local health departments and community health centers to help low-income and poor women and their children.
Joining Ohio Right to Life today are representatives from the Susan B. Anthony List and Texas Right to Life to advocate for the advancement of this legislation.
“The majority of Ohioans agree that taxpayer funding of the nation’s largest abortion provider is inexcusable,” said Mike Gonidakis, President of Ohio Right to Life. “Ohioan’s tax dollars should be used as a responsible safety net to help low-income and poor women.”
The abortion industry and their lobbyists will recklessly claim that women will be denied health care with the enactment of this legislation. In reality, there are over 130 health districts and over 160 community health centers in Ohio that provide family planning services as well as comprehensive primary care. Groups like Planned Parenthood are only attempting to protect the taxpayer money that they have received for decades.
“Ohio women deserve access to comprehensive health care, and they aren’t going to find it at abortion-centered businesses like Planned Parenthood. Abortion is not health care, and Planned Parenthood is America’s largest seller of abortions,” said Hon. Marilyn Musgrave, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Susan B. Anthony List. “This common sense legislation improves the quality of health care for Ohio women by prioritizing family planning funding for entities that best serve women. We look forward to working with Representative Kristina Roegner and our friends at Ohio Right to Life to get this bill on the Governor’s desk and signed into law.”
The abortion industry repeatedly claims that without taxpayer funding for family planning, abortions will increase. However, since 1998, government funding and contracts to Planned Parenthood have almost doubled from $165 million per year to $363.3 million. During the same time period, abortions have increased at Planned Parenthood from 165,509 per year to 332,278.
Simply put, taxpayer funding of abortion providers and their affiliates has done nothing to help women and certainly not their unborn children.
Please join Ohio Right to Life in thanking Representatives Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) and Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) for their pro-life leadership.
To read the legislation, click here. To read testimony from Stephanie Krider, Director of Legislative Affairs at Ohio Right to Life, click here. To read testimony from Charles A. Donovan, President of the Susan B. Anthony List Education Fund, click here.