PA lawmakers to introduce bill to defund Planned Parenthood
First it was the cynically-named "Women's Right to Know Act," a bill that would force women undergoing an abortion to watch an ultra-sound of her unborn baby before undergoing the procedure. Remember how well that went over? After Gov. Corbett offered that patients could "just close [their] eyes when facing the ultrasound machine and when it was revealed that the procedure could involve transvaginal or internal probes bill co-sponsors started dropping like flies.
PA lawmakers to introduce bill to defund Planned Parenthood
First it was the "Women's Right to Know Act," a so-far failed bill that would force women undergoing an abortion to watch an ultra-sound of her unborn baby before undergoing the procedure.
Remember how well that went over? After Gov. Corbett offered that patients could "just close [their] eyes" when facing the ultrasound machine and when it was revealed that the procedure could involve transvaginal or internal probes, bill co-sponsors started dropping like flies.
Today Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R., Butler) unveils his own anti-abortion bill, one simmilar to those being considered in other states, that would eliminate public funding for Planned Parenthood.
The organization provide health services to some 123,000 Pennsylvanians a year. By far the majority of the services it provides are health screenings for cervical and breast cancer, birth control and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, often for low income and uninsured patients. Abortions represent roughly 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's services.
Metcalfe's bill would put health care providers that offer abortion services at the bottom of the state funding list. Yet the legislation is called the "Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priority Act."
Joining Metcalfe at the Capitol media center for a news conference at 10 a.m. are co-sponsors Reps. Gordon Denlinger, Ryan Aument and Bryan Cutler, all Republicans from Lancaster, and Rep. Kathy Rapp (R., Forest), sponsor of the ultrasound bill. Supporting the bill are the Pennsylvania Family Institute, People Concerned for the Unborn Child, Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania and the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List.
Mallory Quigley, communications director for SBA List, told the Huffington Post the bill an "upgrade" for women's health services because it directs money away from Planned Parenthood clinics and toward hospitals and other kinds of family planning clinics that don't provide abortions. The SBA list keeps a scorecard that follows states cutting funding to Planned Parenthood.
Six states enacted legislation to defund Planned Parenthood in 2011: Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee. District judges in all of those states except Wisconsin have since determined that those laws were unconstitutional and have temporarily blocked them, the Huffington Post reported.
Arizona successfully stripped funds from Planned Parenthood, and legislators dropped similar proposed laws in Iowa and New Hampshire, but lawmakers in Kansas, Oklahoma, Ohio and Michigan are considering such proposals.
Click herefor Philly.com's politics page.
The money should go to fund education, not murder babies.— CD75- First of all, abortion is NOT murder. Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, abortion is a lawful procedure. You can call it immoral, unethical, wrong, evil, or a host of other things, but calling it murder is just plain choosing to kill humans.
Defunding Planned Parenthood is even more wrong than the abortions they provide.— AliciaCarla - I guess this is the kind of rationalizing that pro-abortion types have to go through to sleep at night.
— jmc - what's inside a pregnant woman is a "human," not a squirrel or toad. if promiscuous women want to kill their babies, it shouldn't be done on the commonwealth's dime
thank you, mr metcalfe, for this sensible bill— barry m goldwater 
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- PA Republicans against poor women being healthy. in many Rural areas of PA -- Planned Parenthood is the ONLY medical provider for cervical cancer screenings, breast cancer exams, and other medical treatment for Women.
it is very Sad that PA attacks Women's Health.
— pal - Comment removed.
- First of all "The Gun Show" that's your opinion and you know what they say about opinions?
Second, CD75, it's not any kind of "rationalization" fella, it's the law. Deal with it ogre and keep your lifestyle choices and bible-induced psychosis to yourself. BTW, I sleep just fine at night as does everyone else I know that supports a women's right to choose. I feel sorry for folks like you that lose sleep worrying about other peoples' business. Sad and pathetic.— theromneycult - It's not PA that's attacking women's health, it's Republicans/Conservatives that are. It has been already mandated that federal and state money used by Planned Parenthood CANNOT be used for abortion purposes. The money is used for the other health services that Planned Parenthood offers, like mammograms and other cancer screenings. Yet Republicans/Conservatives want to deny women access to cancer screenings as well. — CommonSense in Philly
- You realize that government funds don't go to abortions, right? And that Planned parenthood does far more that abortions. — ME24601
- My point exactly, ME24601. And Republicans want to deny women access to those other health services. There is no limit to Republican treachery. — CommonSense in Philly
- No I don't realize that. Planned Parenthood was asked to open their books, and they refused. That is why we are questioning the public funds. Why is this so hard to understand? — towelie
- As long as it isn't taxpayer money, then they don't have to open their books. Simple. You want taxpayer money. Open your books. You can't take the money and refuse to show where it is going and then claim "government intrusion" — towelie
