As Planned Parenthood is being defunded of $1.5 million in annual state funds this year, pro-life pregnancy centers are being allocated $7.5 million in Ohio’s state budget. Taken together, these two changes represent a bold stride for protecting unborn lives and supporting women’s well-being at the state level…

Ohio pregnancy centers have been the recipients of $1 million in annual funding through the Parenting and Pregnancy Support Program in previous budgets. The recent appropriation of $7.5 million over two years represents a major increase and opens up considerable funding to the 200 pro-life pregnancy help centers across Ohio. The final two-year budget bill was signed by pro-life Governor Mike DeWine on July 18.

7/1/19: Legislators in Ohio have omitted funding for Planned Parenthood in the state’s annual budget and have pledged to substantially increase funding for crisis pregnancy centers. The Senate’s spending bill cuts $1.5 million in funding from Planned Parenthood and allocates $5 million for the state’s more than 200 pregnancy centers. This is five times the amount of funding that these pregnancy centers have received in the past.

The move comes after a federal appeals court upheld a 2016 Ohio law stripping funding from Planned Parenthood. That law was challenged, with a lower court initially ruling in Planned Parenthood’s favor. However, in March of this year, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling, upholding the state’s right to restrict funds to abortion providers.

“Governments generally may do what they wish with public funds, a principle that allows them to subsidize some organizations but not others and to condition receipt of public funds on compliance with certain obligations,” Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote concerning the ruling. “The Ohio law does not violate a woman’s right to obtain an abortion”..

Continue reading here.