Ohio Planned Parenthood Branches Could Lose State Funding
The Ohio legislature is currently voting on a bill which would revoke federal funding from Planned Parenthood and organizations connected to abortion.
Ohio Bill 294 —which would take $1.3 million from any organization that would “perform or promote nontherapeutic abortions.” in Ohio— was passed in the House of Representatives, then amended and passed in the Senate, and will return with those amendments to the House of Representatives on February 9th 2016 to discuss changes to the bill.
While the only branches which offer abortion services are located in Bedford Heights, East Columbus and Dayton, 
the cuts would apply to all branches of Planned Parenthood,
The Kent Planned Parenthood office provides access to birth control, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, general health and wellness screenings related to sexual and reproductive health, cancer screenings, HPV vaccinations, HIV screenings, and emergency contraception. It is unknown how these cuts will affect the branch, since representatives could not be reached for comment. (Did you go in person?)
“Planned Parenthood has always been there for me, and I’m pretty sure that has been there for other women too.” said Mai Yaffa, a Kent State international student studying public health.
However, there are those who agree with the Ohio Legislature’s attempts to revoke Planned Parenthood’s funding. “I feel like there’s always another choice than abortion,” said local resident Darrial Mickens when asked about the potential defunding. “I was 24 years old when I had my daughter and she’s been a blessing ever since; she’s like one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”
Planned Parenthood came under fire following the July 2015 release of a video by The Center of Medical Progress, an anti-abortion organization, which implied that Planned Parenthood profited from the sale of fetal tissue. The Ohio branches of Planned Parenthood were then placed under investigation by the state attorney general’s office for allegedly violating Ohio abortion trafficking laws, which prohibit the sale of fetal tissue .
When the investigation concluded in December 2015, Planned Parenthood was cleared of all violations of the abortion trafficking. Dan Tierney, spokesman for the Ohio Attorney general said they found, “No record of any sale of fetuses or any experimentation of fetuses.”
Planned Parenthood could not be reached for comment, but Eric Ferrero, Planned Parenthood’s Vice President of Communications stated on the official website, “There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood .”
Texas implicated a state level defunding of Planned Parenthood in 2013, which was studied by the New England Journal of Medicine. The journal found that “there was a reduction in the rate of contraceptive continuation and an increase in the rate of childbirth covered by Medicaid .”
Click here to see the full text of Bill 294.
