Another Republican States Support For Planned Parenthood

Christine Whitman, the former Republican Governor of New Jersey, is calling on House Republicans to abandon their efforts to deny federal funding for family planning centers.

In an op-ed for the Bergen (N.J.) Record, Whitman, who ran the Garden State from 1994-2001, wrote that “social conservatives are trying to hijack the budget process to include proposals that would wipe out access to family planning, HIV testing and counseling and breast and cervical cancer screening for millions of American women.”

“The health of American women, preventing unintended pregnancies and supporting sound family planning are goals that all of us, irrespective of political persuasion, should support,” she argued.

Whitman joins Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) as others who have bucked their party on the issue.

Led by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), conservatives would like an amendment ending federal subsidies for Title X included in a bill to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year. Planned Parenthood is direct beneficiary of Title X, the only federal program dedicated to reproductive health issues.

According to Whitman, cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood in an attempt to reduce the nation’s debt would have a reverse effect. “The simple fact is that every public dollar invested in family planning saves taxpayers nearly $4,” she wrote.

Whitman’s stance is interesting given that, as Governor, she vetoed a bill outlawing partial birth abortions. However, she squared her position by citing data which shows that Planned Parenthood services actually reduce the need for abortions on a national scale. 

“Those are statistics that Republicans and Democrats should wholeheartedly embrace.”

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