Orange, Calif., Mar 12, 2009 / 21:41 pm
Citing Planned Parenthood’s links to abortion, the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to rescind the organization’s $290,000 contract which would have funded a sex education program.
The 5-0 vote followed a long debate and many comments from the public.
The funding was part of a $7.5 million contract with the Orange County Coalition of Community Clinics. $291,788 of that money went to Planned Parenthood to provide teens and pre-teens with sex education, including information on birth control and sexually transmitted diseases, the California Catholic Daily reports.
The county supervisors decided that county health officials should find another member of the community clinics coalition that could use the money.
According to the Orange County Register, Supervisor Chris Norby cited Planned Parenthood’s abortion record as a reason for his decision.
“I don’t believe the county should be funding abortion, and I don’t believe the county really should be involved in funding an organization who performs about 35 percent of the abortions in the country,” he said.
Jon Dunn, president of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, attacked the decision for being driven by “personal religious ideology and not the vision of health care for the county.”
“They’re opposed to our organization because they’re opposed to a woman’s right to choose,” he argued, saying the cuts in funding will result in “more unintended pregnancies and more abortions.”
During public comments, Buena Park pastor Wiley Drake asked the supervisor to discontinue the support for Planned Parenthood.
“They can blow smoke all day long, but they’re nothing more than a baby-killing organization,” Drake said, according to the Orange County Register.
Supervisor John Moorlach brought the Planned Parenthood contracts to the board’s attention in February. He was reportedly surprised when an Orange County resident told him the organization was receiving county funds.
"We have a problem with financing Planned Parenthood, period," Mario Mainero, Moorlach's chief of staff,” told the Register. "We just don't think government money should be used to talk to teens and preteens about birth control and abortion.”
Planned Parenthood is still receiving $50,000 in county funds to provide immunizations.
Undercover investigations by Live Action Films have uncovered Planned Parenthood staffers covering up cases of alleged statutory rape in Indiana and Arizona, while another investigation discovered an Idaho Planned Parenthood staffer would accept money from a racist donor who said he wanted to target black babies for abortion.
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