On Monday, August 3, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana announced that he has canceled a contract that provides Planned Parenthood with state Medicaid funds. The state has given the legally required 30 days notice to the abortion provider that a major source of their revenue is being cut off.
“In recent weeks, it has been shocking to see reports of the alleged activities taking place at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country,” Jindal, a GOP presidential candidate, said in a statement. “Planned Parenthood does not represent the values of the people of Louisiana and shows a fundamental disrespect for human life. It has become clear that this is not an organization that is worthy of receiving public assistance from the state.”
The Washington Times is reporting that the Executive Council of the state of New Hampshire voted 3-2 in favor of cancelling a $639,000 state funding contract with Planned Parenthood because of the baby parts scandal.
Chris Sununu, a pro-abortion Republican council member said he received five separate calls from women who were both pro-abortion and pro-life who told him they wanted nothing further to do with Planned Parenthood because of the scandal. In fact, even though they were all unemployed, they went out of their way to find other clinics that could provide the services they needed.
“That sort of hit home,” Sununu said, and added: “I’ve supported Planned Parenthood in the past to provide these services, but there are some women who just don’t want to support them because they’re too controversial.”
Unfortunately, when he and other state lawmakers submitted a request to the pro-abortion governor of the state, Maggie Hassan, to look into using other health care providers for services offered by Planned Parenthood, the governor refused.
“The second request we made was, ‘Look, will you help us find alternatives to Planned Parenthood?’ In other sections of the state, other folks provide these services. In my district — I represent about a quarter-million people — Planned Parenthood is the only option,” Mr. Sununu said. “And I don’t think that’s right. I believe in having choice, in giving women choices for where they want to go. So that’s what I asked the governor to do: Let’s look for alternatives together as a team here,” he said. “She outright rejected that today.”
Instead, the governor blasted the decision with the usual “war on women” rhetoric.
“The council’s vote to defund Planned Parenthood will hurt the health and economic well-being of thousands of Granite Staters,” Ms. Hassan said. “Moving forward, I will continue to fight to ensure that women and families have access to the important health services that are essential to the economic security and vitality of our families.”
“ . . . [F]or some reason the Democrats seem to be going out of their way to find an excuse to keep Planned Parenthood around, and on the line and on contract,” Sununu countered. “There are lots of other providers of these services out there. All I’m saying is, let’s go contract with them and use these other health care providers to make sure we are giving adequate choice to these women.”
He added: “When you have a group like this here at the national level under all this investigation and scrutiny — look, if it were any other contractor, there wouldn’t even be a debate. Of course we wouldn’t be doing business with them.”
Planned Parenthood clinics in the state of Florida are also finding themselves under increased scrutiny, which is resulting in even more hits to their bottom line.
The state’s Agency for Health Care (AHCA) sent inspectors to the 16 Planned Parenthood clinics operating in the state and found three that were performing procedures outside the scope of their license and one that was not keeping proper records about the disposal of fetal remains.
According to TampaBay.com, the three clinics cited for performing second trimester abortions were located in St. Petersburg, Fort Myers and Naples. The Pembroke Pines clinic was cited for improper record keeping.
"We will take immediate actions against these three facilities for performing second trimester abortions without a proper license," AHCA spokesperson Shelisha Coleman said in a written statement Wednesday. “These facilities have been notified to immediately cease performing second trimester abortions."
The Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates responded to the inspection by accusing Governor Scott of attacking women’s health, calling the inspections “a transparent attempt to discredit the care we provide, and to prevent women from accessing essential health care services."
They went on to claim that their facilities are in full compliance with state law. "The claim that any of our health centers are performing procedures we are not licensed to perform is false and seemingly stems from AHCA flip-flopping on their own rules and definitions of gestational periods."
State health officials plan to release the full details of their inspections as soon as the reports are finalized.
More of the same is in store for Planned Parenthood as the organization faces investigations in 11 states including Florida, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Georgia, Texas and Louisiana. The state of Indiana closed its investigation after learning that none of the clinics in the state participate in fetal tissue procurement.
In addition to this list and a congressional investigation, a criminal investigation has been launched in Harris County, Texas which is the location of the Planned Parenthood facility in Houston where the fifth video by the Center for Medical Progress was filmed. In this recording, the clinic’s Director of Research, Melissa Farrell, was caught on tape speaking about procuring and then selling intact fetuses for profit.
Planned Parenthood might have managed to hang onto its federal funding for now, but it’s troubles are far from over.
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