Wisconsin Defunds Planned Parenthood

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed two pro-life bills Thursday that will eliminate more of Planned Parenthood’s funding in Wisconsin.

“Today, we signed two bills into law that prioritize women’s health while improving government and its services to the citizens of Wisconsin,” Walker said, according to the Washington Examiner. The governor signed the bills at a women’s health clinic that promotes alternatives to abortion and noted that the bills redirect federal funding from Planned Parenthood to health facilities that do not provide abortions.

The decision to further defund Planned Parenthood comes in the wake of undercover videos produced by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) that exposed the abortion business’s apparent practices of selling the body parts of aborted babies and altering the position of babies during abortion in order to harvest the most intact organs.

An open records request by Alliance Defending Freedom confirmed in January that University of Wisconsin received fetal tissue donations from Planned Parenthood in 2010, reports the Badger Herald.

The new laws state that Planned Parenthood — which operates 22 clinics in Wisconsin, three of which provide abortions — can no longer receive any federal Title X family planning funding because the business provides abortions. The law means $3.5 million taxpayer dollars will be redirected away from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. The second law significantly reduces Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid reimbursement rates and will cut the abortion business out of $4.5 million in taxpayer funds in Wisconsin. Planned Parenthood receives most of its taxpayer funding through the federal Medicaid program that is administered by the states.

According to the Capital Times, State Sen. Chris Kapenga (R) — who authored one of the bills, said, “I believe that life begins at conception, and I believe that one of the cornerstones of the Declaration of Independence and what our Constitution is drafted around is the protection of life.”

As a result of information reported in the CMP videos on the sales and profits of baby body parts — in addition to Wisconsin — Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah have defunded Planned Parenthood. Gov. John Kasich (R) is expected to sign legislation that has been passed in Ohio to further eliminate Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer dollars, as the Daily Signal reports.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News last October, Sen. Ted Cruz said state legislatures and governors need to “stand up and lead” on defunding Planned Parenthood since Republican leadership in Congress has continued to fund the abortion business.

“I encourage every state legislature and every governor to stand up and lead on Planned Parenthood,” the GOP presidential contender said. “Unfortunately, Republican leadership in Washington is unwilling to lead and, indeed, it’s Republican leadership who’s joined with Barack Obama in leading the fight to preserve taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.”

“The states can make a real difference,” Cruz said.

“I’m proud of my home state of Texas for standing up and leading,” he continued, “and I would encourage every state to take the lead in stopping taxpayer funds from going to a private organization — Planned Parenthood — that is currently under multiple investigations for apparently committing a pattern of ongoing felonies of illegally selling the body parts of unborn children.”