Future uncertain for proposal to defund Planned Parenthood
Source: St. Louis Post Dispatch
JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri lawmakers’ effort to strip Planned Parenthood of any state money faces an uncertain path forward.
While the Missouri House passed a budget last week that bars any entity that provides or counsels a woman to get a nonemergency abortion from receiving Medicaid reimbursements, courts have blocked similar attempts in other states, and the budget writers in the Missouri Senate have so far declined to endorse the effort.
It’s the latest in a series of Republican proposals that would regulate Planned Parenthood, whose St. Louis clinic is the only center offering elective abortions in Missouri. Lawmakers also have proposed requiring more inspections of abortion facilities, a more comprehensive system for tracking fetal remains and a ban on a common second-trimester abortion method.
Under the new proposal, low-income patients would be blocked from using Medicaid for any health care service provided by Planned Parenthood — services such as HPV vaccinations and vaginal exams. Lawmakers removed about $379,000 from the budget, too, which is roughly what the state annually pays Planned Parenthood for such services.
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