A Virginia state Senate committee approved a bill Thursday that would defund the abortion business Planned Parenthood, the Associated Press reports.
The bill passed the state House on Tuesday, and now moves to the full Senate for consideration. Virginia House Bill 2264 would cut off federal Title X funding for Planned Parenthood and any other group that does abortions, and redirect the tax dollars to community health clinics that provide more comprehensive care but don’t do abortions.
Virginia Del. Ben Cline, R-Amherst, sponsor of the bill, said the legislation “ensures that hospitals, federally qualified health clinics and rural health clinics are funded prior to abortion centers.”
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The bill states the Virginia Department of Health “shall not enter into a contract with, or make a grant to, any entity that performs abortions that are not federally qualified abortions or maintains or operates a facility where non-federally qualified abortions are performed.”
Pro-abortion Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoed a similar measure in 2016, and is expected to do the same with this bill, according to the AP.
Planned Parenthood currently receives about half a billion dollars of taxpayer funding every year, and performs about 320,000 abortions annually. It does about one third of all abortions in the United States.
The new U.S. Congress also is working to defund the abortion group. Legislators plan to redirect the tax dollars to federally-qualified community health clinics that offer more comprehensive care but don’t perform abortions.
Planned Parenthood has been exposed in recent videos as not providing prenatal care, despite claims to the contrary, and only providing ultrasounds in preparation for abortions.
