Missouri Governor Matt Blunt announced on 19Mar07 that he is pulling state taxpayer funding of a Planned Parenthood program that provides breast cancer screenings.
Pro-life advocates applaud the move saying tax dollars shouldn’t fund the nation’s largest abortion business.
Blunt said his administration found that previous governors had programmed taxpayer money to go to Planned Parenthood in Springfield and Joplin through the Show Me Healthy Women Program.
That’s the state-funded program that offers free breast and cervical cancer screenings to thousands of Missouri women who meet specific residency, age and income guidelines.
In a press statement about the move that LifeNews.com obtained, Blunt said he yanked funding because “Patients should not have to go to an abortion clinic to access life saving tests.”
“Today I put an end to taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood in Springfield and Joplin through the [program],” he said.
“This ensures women may access important preventative care without contributing to abortion providers’ goal of facilitating the destruction of innocent life.”
Instead of funding Planned Parenthood, the Jordan Valley Community Health Center will be expanding their program to provide more screenings for women and Joplin’s Ozark Tri County Health Care will participate in the screenings as well.
[21March07, LifeNews.com, Jefferson City, MO]