Jim Rosica
Democrats on Wednesday questioned the Florida House’s proposed banning of Planned Parenthood for any funding in 2016-17.
The House Appropriations Committee met to go over that chamber’s proposed $79.9 billion spending plan. It was cleared along party lines, with Democrats opposing.
A leading senator later said the Planned Parenthood provision would likely become a talking point in the House-Senate budget conference.
The move singles out Planned Parenthood, the reproductive health provider, saying no money slated for the Agency for Health Care Administration or Department of Health “may be provided to Planned Parenthood … directly or indirectly.”
The group came under fire last year after the release of videos of organization officials discussing how they sometimes provide medical researchers with tissue from aborted fetuses.
The organization, however, later was cleared by a grand jury. A FactCheck.org review found that the editing of the videos wrongly “leaves the impression that … Planned Parenthood affiliates are making money from fetal tissue.”
Democratic state Reps. Kevin Rader of Delray Beach and David Richardson of Miami Beach questioned the budget language affecting Planned Parenthood.
As POLITICO Florida‘s Christine Sexton has explained, Florida gives money to the group not for abortions but for other health care services through Medicaid managed care organizations.
Democrats have pointed out that Planned Parenthood offers health care to poor women in “medically underserved areas,” including cervical cancer screenings.
Matt Hudson, the Naples Republican who chairs the Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee, explained that not giving the organization money was a “policy decision” like any other in the budget.
He also said, when told of other states’ experience with the group, “I don’t care how they do it in Michigan or Idaho, I only care what we do in Florida.”
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Lee also addressed the matter with reporters Wednesday.
“I think there are a lot of our members, a lot of our conservative members in the Senate, that would want to take a look at that issue,” he said. “If the House is raising it, it sounds like it might be a conference discussion point we’re going to have, whether members want to have it or not. So, put it on the list of things to talk about.”
Later this session, the House and Senate will go into conference to hammer out a final budget for next year.
Correspondent Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster contributed to this post.
