Friday, April 15, 2011

N.C. lawmakers take up Planned Parenthood fight

A week after funding for Planned Parenthood was a key sticking point in the congressional negotiations to avoid a federal government shutdown, Republican leaders in North Carolina are seeking to bar the state from granting any money to the organization.

The women's health provider gets $473,000 through state safety net programs aimed at preventing teen pregnancies and providing birth control to low-income women. Some of the money is also used to combat sexually transmitted diseases and to support classes in parenting skills for young mothers.

But Planned Parenthood also uses private resources to provide abortions, which has made it a frequent target for many on the right.

A one-sentence provision added to the draft GOP budget this week does not cut the money that goes to Planned Parenthood. It specifically bars the state from making any grants or entering into any contracts of any kind with that one organization.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, chairman of the House appropriation subcommittee for Health and Human Services, denied the provision has anything to do with the controversy over abortion.

"People are free to conjecture as they will," said Dollar, a Cary Republican. "There are a whole host of programs being reduced. Planned Parenthood is not unique."

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