TOPEKA, KS, August 26, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — With the release of undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood's aborted baby organ trafficking, several states have found the political will to defund the nation's largest abortion business.
The overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood's multi-billion dollar cash-only income is from abortion, and there are many genuine health facilities which perform cancer screenings, pap smears, STD testing and other services for women's health. So, some states have decided to funnel their federal and state monies to medical clinics that do not do abortions.
Kansas is one such state. Kansas has defunded Planned Parenthood in favor of healthcare businesses that do not do abortions.
Kansas legislators said the state could better provide health care for low-income patients by funding medical facilities that provide a wider range of medical services. In 2011, they directed the state health department to give federal funds first to public health departments and hospitals.
Planned Parenthood sued for the tax funding, but an appeals court ruled that states are free to decide how best to use healthcare dollars for their citizens.
However, the Obama administration strongly champions both abortion and Planned Parenthood, and so is now penalizing states that defund the abortion giant.
In fact, the Obama administration reduced its Medicaid funding to Kansas precisely by the amount which Planned Parenthood was getting. The Kansas Department of Health admitted that since the Obama administration cut off funding, “there was no additional funding to give to other clinics.”
Instead of continuing to receive funding for women's healthcare, the Obama administration has cut off $370,000 of such funding for the women of Kansas, because that was how much Planned Parenthood in Wichita and Hays and elsewhere had been receiving annually.
The administration gave no explanation for why they cut off funding for women's healthcare. The only hint is a warning from the president that defunding Planned Parenthood is illegal, in his opinion.
The administration's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified Louisiana and Alabama that they may be in violation of federal law if they channel healthcare funds to providers other than Planned Parenthood. By restricting which provider a woman could choose to receive care from, women could lose access to care, the administration argued.
Additionally, the Obama administration's Health and Human Services set rules in 2011 which stated that states “cannot block Medicaid funding to providers on the basis of the other services offered.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, should the states continue to channel funding away from Planned Parenthood, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may cut Medicaid funds to the state.
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So, the Obama administration is threatening states attempting to defund Planned Parenthood with not only civil action, but with cutting off Medicaid funds.
The bottom line is, Kansas and other states are being denied women's healthcare money simply because they decided to channel it to clinics that do not do abortions.
Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin also have proposed defunding Planned Parenthood, despite the president's threat of federal prosecution.
Spokesmen for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley defended their states' rights, saying that Medicaid contracts with Planned Parenthood give either party the right to cancel it at will, and therefore they are not in violation of federal law.
Casey Mattox of the Alliance Defending Freedom explained, “Planned Parenthood has contracts with states that can be terminated for cause.”
Threats from the Obama administration against those who support life are nothing new. When Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry was governor of Texas, the Obama administration threatened to cut off Medicaid funding because Perry funded healthcare providers other than Planned Parenthood. Perry responded by funding the low-income women’s health program completely with his state’s own money.
Planned Parenthood received over half a billion dollars in tax money from federal grants alone, in 2013.