Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Columbus sleight of hand
Cleveland Plain Dealer: If you care about women’s health, you have to abhor the anti-abortion restrictions inserted into the two-year, $62 billion budget bill that Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed into law.
The world would be a better place if there were fewer abortions and fewer unplanned pregnancies. But riding roughshod over the right to an abortion — which, like it or not, is the law of the land — is the wrong way to reach that goal.
Doing so using the sleight of hand of last-minute amendments inserted into must-pass legislation like Ohio’s budget smacks of backroom skulduggery.
One provision shoehorned into the budget pushes Planned Parenthood to the back of the line for state money for preventative health grants, behind local public health departments that often don’t have the same expertise or experience in providing breast and cervical screenings and reproductive care..