Oklahoma Senate votes to defund Planned Parenthood 2 Days after Tornado

[okaawhatever]

Source: Huffington Post

In the wake of one of the most destructive tornadoes in history, Oklahoma state senators passed a bill on Wednesday that would effectively defund Planned Parenthood.

Senate Bill 900, which re-allocates family planning funds to public providers and hospitals instead of private providers like Planned Parenthood, passed by a vote of 33 to 8. The state Senate was able to pass the bill somewhat under the radar because it was not posted on Wednesday's legislative agenda.

Planned Parenthood operates five clinics in Oklahoma and serves about 8,400 men and women there a year. The family planning provider has faced scrutiny from Republicans in recent years because it provides abortions, even though it cannot use public family planning funding to pay for abortion services.

State Rep. Doug Cox (R), a family physician, said he will vote against the legislation when the House takes it up on Thursday. "To defund a program like Planned Parenthood would be a mistake," he told The Huffington Post in a phone interview. "They perform a valuable service as far as breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, parenting classes, many things that benefit our state that we're sorely in need of."

Cox said he believes that some of his Republican colleagues in the House also support Planned Parenthood, but they still feel pressured to vote for bills that would defund it. "I have people who tell me they feel the way I do, but are afraid to vote the way I do," he said.

“This is not what Oklahomans want the Legislature to be focusing on as session winds down," she said in a statement. "This bill does nothing to provide Oklahoma women with health care. Instead, it shifts family planning money away from specialists in reproductive health care to other agencies that don’t have the capacity or the expertise to serve the women who come to us."


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/oklahoma-planned-parenthood_n_3322132.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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Neo-Cons strike again. I hope everyone will encourage friends in Oklahoma to call their state congressmen.

[Turbineguy]

1. At least they have their priorities straight.

The most important thing to do in a situation like this is to show that you are an idiot.

[Fuddnik]

2. These aren't neo-cons. They're theocratic fascists.

[msongs]

3. their lord works in myesterious ways etc nt

[maindawg]

4. hopefully they will secceed

along with Texas,

[jtuck004]

5. More likely that the same behavior will spread. n/t

[Brigid]

6. Wow.

I'm glad this is the most pressing issue the OK state senator has to deal with right now.

[ReRe]

7. Clearly, the state of OK...

... doesn't care about it's women, OR its children. Tightwads won't support the mothers with reproductive healthcare or their children with storm shelters in the schools. Exactly what are that state's priorities?

[SunSeeker]

8. That is just sickening. Like looters after a storm. nt

[blkmusclmachine]

9. .

.

[Doctor_J]

10. And here is why giving them tornado money is

A really bad idea over the long run. They don't want to be a part of the US.

[marshall]

11. Look for an Okie Baby Boom!

And let them deal with the consequences...

[lhooq]

12. The people Planned Parenthood serve ...

are not likely to be politically engaged and active. They have more immediate concerns -- like trying to meet their basic healthcare needs. So the anti-PP forces will get away with it.

I wonder how many of the people using PP know who Margaret Sanger was or what the significance of Roe v. Wade is. Not many, I'm afraid. And what a shame.

[bigdarryl]

13. Its the people of that state who are the problem

The idiots keep voting republican in that state.

[Sunlei]

14. really sad, that the politicans themselves say they are "afraid to vote" USA fails to govern..

because of RW terrorist threats.