Christian Headlines Blog Christian Blog and Commentary

Get guidance on Bible study from C.S. Lewis - Free Course!

Missouri Defunds Planned Parenthood—Again

  • Samantha Gobba Religious persecution, missions, Christianity around the world
  • Updated May 30, 2017

Missouri legislators recently discovered state dollars going to Planned Parenthood despite defunding the organization last year. The state’s 2018 budget includes a new blanket ban on Medicaid funds to facilities that perform, encourage, or refer for abortions.

Last year, the state cut $380,000 in state Medicaid funding to the abortion giant with a ban on funding to organizations that perform abortions. In doing so, they said goodbye to $8 million in federal funds, replacing them with money from the state coffer. But state officials continued to release funds to Planned Parenthood facilities that merely referred women to the group’s abortion megacenters in St. Louis and Kansas City, Kansas.

Susan Klein, Missouri Right to Life’s legislative liaison, told me funding to Planned Parenthood has been “ingrained” into the budget system and is hard to oust: “As [legislators] find all this money that’s been hidden over the years from different administrations that support abortion, then they’re defunding.”

The new budget redirects money from abortion centers to community health agencies and grants $14 million to cover pregnant women and children who cannot afford medical insurance but don’t qualify for Medicaid. Klein said she expects Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens to approve the budget.

 

Courtesy: WORLD News Service

Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

Publication date: May 30, 2017