North Carolina Is Third State to Defund Planned Parenthood

Copyright Associated Press

In the fight against Planned Parenthood, pro-life supporters have something to celebrate. North Carolina became the third state on Wednesday to cut funding from the abortion-providing organization, following Kansas and Indiana.

In a state Senate vote, North Carolina lawmakers voted 31-19 to override Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto of the bill. The budget prevents Planned Parenthood from receiving any state or federal funds—which adds up to $434,000, according to the Huffington Post—and will go into effect on July 1.

“Governors of other states should take note of how Gov. Perdue’s legislature has decisively rejected her veto and realize that the American people do not want to subsidize abortionists,” says Lila Rose, president of the pro-life youth organization Live Action.

Planned Parenthood receives government funding through Title X. Although a provision titled the Hyde Amendment is supposed to prohibit state and federal money from funding abortions, former Planned Parenthood worker Abby Johnson says otherwise.

“This defies common sense and basic logic; of course taxpayer money helps to finance abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics,” she writes of the common deception in an opinion piece on AOL News.

Johnson, who worked for Planned Parenthood for eight years—including two years as a Texas clinic director—explains: “As clinic director, I saw how money received by Planned Parenthood affiliate clinics all went into one pot at the end of the day—it isn’t divvied up and directed to specific services.”

Live Action, over the past four years, has released undercover videos that reveal Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation covering up the sexual abuse of children and violating mandatory reporting laws for statutory rape.

The organization released undercover footage in February showing seven Planned Parenthood clinics in four states willing to aid and abet the commercial sex trafficking of underage girls. The videos prompted the House of Representatives to vote twice to defund Planned Parenthood of all federal taxpayer subsidies.

“This corrupt organization is responsible for killing over 332,000 defenseless unborn children each year,” Rose says. “Planned Parenthood manipulates women to choose abortion and routinely aids and abets the sexual exploitation and trafficking of young girls.”

Although Indiana’s bill blocked the organization’s ability to contract with Medicaid, clinics in North Carolina will continue to be allowed to serve Medicaid patients.

“While we wait for Congress to defund Planned Parenthood at the federal level, responsible state governments should do their part to protect women and unborn children and end local public subsidies of this lawless abortion chain,” Rose exclaims.

Vice President of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina Paige Johnson said the organization plans to fight the ban.

“We’re not preparing to limit the scope of our services or to turn patients away,” she told Hotsheet on Thursday. “We are preparing to fight this in court and we think we’ll prevail—that we’ll get an injunction immediately.”