By Dave Andrusko
I am always amused when press accounts/pro-abortion organizations moan about the “millions of dollars” that Pregnancy Help Centers (PHCs) received from various states. You would think the 2,600 PHCs were awash in money when in truth many operate on a wing and a prayer.
By contrast, Planned Parenthood has always been flooded with state and federal money. To wit, a cool $792 million from the feds in “Government Health Services Reimbursements & Grants” the 2023-24 period (which covers much of calendar 2024).
Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Planned Parenthood will be cut off for one year from receiving federal bounty, which began October 1. But Big Abortion States are in midst of trying to prop up Big Abortion.
Catholic News Agency’s Kate Quiñones tells us
New York and California are pouring taxpayer dollars into Planned Parenthood, joining several other states in counteracting the federal defunding of the abortion giant.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged $140 million to Planned Parenthood locations in California on Oct. 24. On the same day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul committed $35 million in funding to Planned Parenthood locations in New York.
Both states are known for their abortion shield laws, which protect abortionists who mail abortion pills into states where they are illegal. Several women are suing California and New York abortionists after being poisoned by or coerced into taking the abortion pill by the fathers of their children.
New York and California join several other states that have made similar moves in light of the yearlong federal defunding of Planned Parenthood. Colorado, Massachusetts, and Washington have all taken similar steps to replace lost federal funding for Planned Parenthood over the past few months.
In a statement released last Thursday, Newsom said that California is “protecting access to essential health care” by providing funding for more than 100 locations across the state.
“Trump’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood put all our communities at risk as people seek basic health care from these community providers,” Newsom said.
But Andrea Trudden, a spokeswoman for Heartbeat International, told Quiñones there are hundreds of clinics and pregnancy centers in both New York and California.
“California has more than 300 pregnancy help organizations and New York nearly 200,” Trudden said, citing Heartbeat International’s Worldwide Directory of Pregnancy Help.
“These centers offer practical support, compassionate care, and resources to women facing unplanned pregnancies, empowering them to choose life for their children and themselves,” she continued.
For women who need health care not related to pregnancy, Trudden noted that both states are “well served” by Federally Qualified Health Centers, which are centers that provide “comprehensive, low-cost medical care for women and families.”
Of course, Planned Parenthood is busy in court and elsewhere attempting to offset and/or restore the flow of federal money.
Noah Brandt, a spokesman for Live Action,
called the defunding of Planned Parenthood “one of the most lifesaving acts Congress has taken in decades,” noting that the federal government stopped funding the organization that “kills over 400,000 children every year.”
“That victory must be made permanent when the one-year cutoff expires next July,” Brandt told CNA. “Yet pro-abortion states like California and New York are working to undo that progress, using taxpayer money to expand abortion through all nine months and to ship abortion pills nationwide.”
Brandt added,
“Federal funding for Planned Parenthood must never return, and states that promote abortion should be held accountable for enabling the mass killing and sterilization of American children.”