State Budget Should Have No Room for Abortion

Whenever the New Hampshire Executive Council awards a contract to an abortion provider, someone in the room is bound to remark that the funds are for non-abortion work or that taxpayers aren’t funding abortions. That doesn’t tell the whole story.

New Hampshire state funds might not go directly for abortion, but they go to abortion providers. That’s a distinction without a difference. When voting on a state budget for the next biennium, legislators should keep that in mind.

It’s budget time in Concord. That means it’s time for New Hampshire’s elected officials to quit telling themselves and the public that it’s okay to do business with abortion providers as long as the money isn’t used for abortion. It’s time to vote for a budget that rules out state involvement with abortion providers altogether.

Voters are ready. Legislators need to catch up. Funding health care while respecting the conscience rights of pro-life Granite Staters is an attainable goal.

Allocate funds for health care, certainly. But make sure that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are not among the contractors who actually receive those funds. Abortion is not health care, and taxpayers have the right not to be compelled to underwrite any business where human life is directly and intentionally terminated.

Keeping the budget abortion-free would not reduce state allocations for health care, including the cancer screenings and preventive care that abortion providers like to tout. Only the contractors would change.

Every state dollar that goes to Planned Parenthood for a program like Title X (family planning) is a dollar that frees up other PP resources to be used for abortions, for “public policy” work, for building rental, even for the exam tables where abortions are performed. Anything taxpayers do to keep the lights on at a business that does abortions is a direct contribution to the abortion industry.

According to its most recent annual report, PP of Northern New England, with a budget of more than $20 million, relies on public funding for 14% of its income. The same report shows that PPNNE spent $974,329 that year on “public policy.”

That $974,329 could have covered a lot of cancer screenings. Instead, it promoted the agenda of an agency whose idea of “public policy” is unlimited abortion. PPNNE opposed a bill to license abortion facilities just as ambulatory care facilities must be licensed (HB 1399, 2016) and opposed protection of children who survive attempted abortion (HB 1627, 2016). PPNNE opposed restrictions on abortion of viable preborn children – even when the bill left the definition of viability to the abortionist (HB 1625, 2016; HB 578, 2017). PPNNE supports the “buffer zone” law (SB 319, 2014) that threatens the First Amendment rights of peaceful pro-life witnesses outside abortion facilities.

On the national level, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s most recent annual report shows that nationwide, PP took in more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer funds while performing more than 328,000 abortions.

Those are challenging numbers. Taxpayers are heavily invested in an industry that uses its health-care clients as human shields to protect its abortion activities. How can we turn the tide?

We start here in New Hampshire, one vote at a time. The state budget vote is a good place to start. Fund health care? Yes. Fund the abortion industry? No.

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