The Missouri State Senate is willing to put their money where their mouth is… well, technically it’s the taxpayers’ money. In a new effort to attack women’s rights, the Missouri Senate has proposed a budget that will use $8 million of state tax dollars instead of federal money in an effort to “defund” Planned Parenthood.
“The federal government gets to dictate where the money goes. If we take it out, we get to dictate where the money goes,” said Republican Kurt Schaefer.
The Missouri House has a similar measure in their proposed budget. Next week the two sides are scheduled to conference on the budget as a whole.
Supporters of Planned Parenthood marched to the capital in Jefferson City on Tuesday. They carried a petition of 1,700 signatures and demands for Schaefer and the Senate to reconsider. They contend that by cutting off federal funding, all 13 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state will be forced to close.
Schaefer, who didn’t meet or address the protesters, argued that his proposal would not necessarily shut down Planned Parenthood in Missouri.
“They think that somehow we are closing down all the Planned Parenthood clinics in the state, and that is simply not true. People will have the choice of going to Planned Parenthood; Missouri taxpayers are just not going to pay for it.”
Missouri legislators are on the warpath since doctored videos were released, apparently showing employees of Planned Parenthood selling body parts after abortions. CNN and other news outlets have demonstrated how the videos were fabricated with misleading and false information. The leader of the organization responsible for the videos, Center for Medical Progress, has even been indicted over the issue.
Nevertheless, the videos have sparked an increase in violence against employees of Planned Parenthood and rekindled the motivations of many Republican legislators across the country. Nine states has already moved to defund Planned Parenthood including Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
In addition to the proposal to defund the organization, Schaefer is trying to demand answers from key leadership. The Missouri House is already threatened to put the Planned Parenthood affiliate leader Mary Kogut in jail for not turning over private medical records on Missouri residents who have had abortions.
The ongoing political and legal battle is likely to heat up over the coming weeks.
Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.
