Missouri legislature rejects federal Medicaid money in Republican war against Planned Parenthood

Rss@dailykos.com (hunter) · Monday, April 25, 2016, 6:45 pm

The Missouri Legislature, or at least the Republican contingent of it, loathes Planned Parenthood. It is because Planned Parenthood still allows women to receive abortions, no matter how many conservative Republican lawmakers demand they not do that regardless of what the nation's Supreme Court has said on the matter. So toward the end of making certain everyone in their state knows just how much they loathe Planned Parenthood, the Republican-led state legislature has decided to spend a bucketload of taxpayer money on what at this point is a mere party fetish.

The Legislature rejected more than $8.3 million in federal Medicaid funding the state was slated to receive for family planning, sexually transmitted disease testing and pelvic exams at county health departments, other clinics and Planned Parenthood. They replaced it with money from Missouri's general revenues, leaving the total unchanged at $10.8 million, and stipulated that none of it could go to organizations that provide abortions, as Planned Parenthood does.

Mind you, that federal Medicaid money that the state was getting was already prevented by law from being used for elective abortion services, but state Republicans are upset that the federal government will not allow them to summarily ban Planned Parenthood from providing Medicaid services regardless. So the lawmakers are now saying they simply won't take that federal Medicaid money at all. They'll take that money from state coffers instead, allowing them to block Planned Parenthood from providing any services to patients. Those 7,000 or so patients will have to find other providers, it's likely that at least some of them won't be able to find clinics offering similar services nearby, and the state will pick up the $8.3 million tab for the pleasure of causing that damage.

http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/OhLWUiuMQRQ/-Missouri-legislature-rejects-federal-Medicaid-money-in-Republican-war-against-Planned-Parenthood