New Hampshire leaders rejected a series of contracts with Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups Wednesday, choosing instead to give taxpayer-funded family planning money to groups that do not abort unborn babies.
In Depth NH reports the state Executive Council voted 4-1 along party lines to reject the contracts with the abortion groups.
Facilities with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and two independent abortion facilities in Concord and Greenland were defunded, according to The Union Leader.
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The council did approve contracts funding four other clinics that do not do abortions, New Hampshire Public Radio reports.
The funding is used to provide family planning services such as birth control, STD and cancer screenings for low-income residents. Though the contracts do not allow tax dollars to be used for abortions, Republican leaders said they indirectly supported the groups’ abortion practices.
“You can’t pay a secretary half out of one pot of money and half out of another pot of money,” said council member David Wheeler, R-Milford. “These are the rules now and they have to be followed.”
Students for Life Action praised the council for taking bold action to defund the billion-dollar abortion chain Planned Parenthood and support real health care.
“Our state laws should have the goal of preserving life, not ending it,” said Students for Life New England regional coordinator Mariah McCarron. “Abortion has taken the lives of one quarter of my generation, and with nine student groups in the state, we are standing up for those who may be lost to abortion.”
New Hampshire voters elected a Republican-majority legislature last year that has been passing pro-life legislation. Earlier this year, lawmakers included an item in the state budget requiring an audit of family planning funds to ensure that no tax dollars are being used for abortion. They also passed a late-term abortion ban.
Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican with a mixed record on abortion, criticized the council for rejecting the contracts, according to In Depth NH.
“I brought these contracts forward because I support them, just as I have every year as governor, because they protect women’s health and it is the right thing to do,” Sununu said. “Today’s action to vote down funding like cancer screenings and other women’s health services is incredibly disappointing and not something I agree with.”
But Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, said the council was listening to New Hampshire voters.
“After SFLA engaged in New Hampshire, the State Executive Council has voted NOT to fund Planned Parenthood with tax dollars,” her organization said in a statement. “Thank you, Councilor Dave Wheeler for his bold action. Elections matter and so does grassroots engagement. Way to go, NH!”
Planned Parenthood has aborted more than 8 million unborn babies since abortion became legal nation-wide in 1973. Its most recent annual report showed a record number of abortions in 2020: 354,871, which is about 40 percent of all abortions in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the same report showed that many of Planned Parenthood’s actual health services continue to decline. It provided less contraception, sterilizations, cancer screenings, adoption referrals and other women’s health services than the previous year, mirroring a continued downward trend.
Its patient numbers also have been dropping steadily over the past decade amid numerous reports of alleged unethical and illegal activities by Planned Parenthood, including selling aborted baby body parts, botching abortions that killed women, covering up the sexual abuse of minors, discriminating against pregnant and racial minority employees, exploiting young girls by selling cross-sex hormones and more.
