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TRENTON, New Jersey, July 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New Jersey’s pro-life governor Chris Christie has once again vetoed an attempt by the state legislature to restore $7.5 million dollars in state family planning funds that could be used by abortion provider Planned Parenthood.

Christie on Thursday vetoed more than $1.3 billion in extra spending demanded by the Democrat-controlled legislature for FY 2012, including the state family planning expenditures the governor vetoed the year before.

Democrats lacked the two-thirds majorities they need in both chambers of the legislature for an override, so Christie’s veto will stand.

Christie told reporters at a news conference that he was not going to let lawmakers “revert to the same fantasy, unrealistic budgeting that has plagued Trenton for years and is the reason New Jersey got into fiscal trouble in the first place.” 

“I wish I could be Santa Claus sometimes too, but I was sent to Trenton to be the adult supervision,” Christie added. 

Christie nixed $7.5 million in family planning funds to the budget, a sum that was championed by Democrat Sen. Loretta Weinberg. The veto represented at least the fourth time the legislature was defeated in trying to restore such funding, including an attempt to restore funding through a Medicaid expansion.

The governor had previously explained that he saw no reason for New Jerseyans to shell out tax dollars for family planning clinics at a time of fiscal crisis for the state, when the clinics were still funded by the federal government.

Weinberg had called in to a radio show in May accusing the governor of compromising women’s access to health care by withdrawing funds that, among other things, would affect the operation of Planned Parenthood. 

“I don’t think it’s been in the best interest of the state for Senator Weinberg to be around mischaracterizing women’s access to health care,” responded Christie. “Women still have extensive access to health care all across the state of New Jersey through other clinics that are still open, and federally qualified health clinics which the state funds in the tens of millions of dollars every year.”

Christie has been frank about his pro-life beliefs, and headlined this year’s March for Life in Trenton, where he told the crowd that the pro-life movement has an ally in the governor’s office.