Kasich on hot seat over Planned Parenthood funding

EDITOR’S NOTE: The New York Times has endorsed Gov. John Kasich for the Republican nomination for president.

The worst thing that could have happened to Ohio’s Republican governor and presidential candidate, John R. Kasich, was the vindication of Planned Parenthood by a grand jury in Texas – the reddest of red states.

And, the best thing that could have happened to Kasich was the news coming out of Columbus that a bill to defund Planned Parenthood won’t reach his desk until after the Feb. 9 New Hampshire primary.

That’s important to the governor who is banking on doing well enough in the primary to give his campaign the boost it so badly needs. Thus far, his overall poll numbers have been inconsequential, but Kasich has spent a lot of time, money and energy in New Hampshire touting his moderate views on an array of issues and shying away from the strident partisanship that has been embraced by most of the other candidates.

Indeed, Kasich was in the national spotlight last week after the New York Times

singled him out in an editorial about the Texas grand jury’s vindication of Planned Parenthood.

In fact, the jury, which was convened to investigate the organization, indicted two members of the group that released hidden-camera videos last summer that they claimed showed Planned Parenthood employees offering to sell fetal tissue for a profit.

Newspaper’s view

Here’s what the Times editorial said, in part:

“Several Republican presidential candidates continue to treat the falsehoods presented by the Center for Medical Progress as fact. In response to Monday’s indictments, Carly Fiorina, for one said, ‘Planned Parenthood has been trafficking in body parts,’ a claim she has made repeatedly on the campaign trail.

“The indictments should cause politicians to back away from an anti-abortion group that will stop at nothing to attack Planned Parenthood. Gov. John Kasich of Ohio is running for president on a platform of good governance and common sense. The campaign against Planned Parenthood is anathema to these principles, and if a bill to defund the organization reaches his desk, he should veto it.”

Shortly after the allegations surfaced and the nation was inundated with claims of wholesale profiteering by Planned Parenthood, Republicans in Congress and GOP state legislators moved to defund the organization.

In Ohio, the Republican-controlled House and Senate took on the issue, and Gov. Kasich had this to say: “I’m a believer in women’s health, but Planned Parenthood has been a completely discredited organization.”

That comment was in reaction to the allegations that had been made.

But as the New York Times noted, “One after the other, investigations of Planned Parenthood prompted by hidden-camera videos released last summer have found no evidence of wrongdoing. On Monday, a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, went a step further; though it was convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, it indicted two members of the group that made the videos instead.

“The Harris County prosecutor, Devon Anderson, a Republican who was asked by the lieutenant governor, a strident opponent of Planned Parenthood, to open the criminal investigation, said on Monday that the grand jurors had cleared Planned Parenthood of any misconduct.

“Yet despite all the evidence, Texas’ Republican governor, Greg Abbott, said on Monday that the state attorney general’s office and the State Health and Human Services Commission would continue investigating Planned Parenthood. This is a purely political campaign of intimidation and persecution meant to destroy an organization whose mission to serve women’s health care needs the governor abhors.”

Therein lies the challenge for Kasich as he tries to separate himself from the crowded GOP presidential field and makes the case that compassion is a conservative trait.

It should be remembered that Kasich made national headlines when he broke ranks with other Republican governors and expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

In one interview, he said that Medicaid expansion has “helped a lot of people.”

“My choice in that decision was to ignore some of the most vulnerable people in our population. I’ve been, you know, criticized for this decision. Do you think it bothers me? It doesn’t. And we’ve helped a lot of people. And my folks have probably saved some lives in the process. And so I think it was the right decision.”

Not surprisingly, Democrats in Columbus and around the country joined the New York Times in urging Kasich to veto the Planned Parenthood defunding bill. One of the main arguments they’re making is that the poorest women would be deprived of health services they need, including cancer screenings, contraceptive care and testing for sexually transmitted infections.

Republicans in the Statehouse insist that there are clinics and other health-care centers that could provide such care, but state Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard, contends that’s wishful thinking.

“I’m not really sure we have the capacity in those rural communities to pick up the slack, even if its goes to the county health department,” Cafaro said.

As for the Republicans’ key argument that Planned Parenthood performs abortions, supporters of the organization argue that the law prohibits public funds from being used and that abortions are a minor part of the health-related services provided to women who need them the most.

The vindication of Planned Parenthood by the Texas grand jury puts Kasich on the hot seat.