Back to Ohio

Back in June, I posted about the Ohio House debating and passing three hideous pieces of legislation.

Yesterday, the Ohio Senate passed SB 72, which is the companion/mirror bill of HB 78--both are being called "post viability abortion" bills. It passed 22 - 7 and now goes to Gov Kasich for signing (which he is expected to do).

As a reminder, SB72/HB78 says things like:

2) No abortion shall be considered necessary under division (B)(1)(b) of this section on the basis of a claim or diagnosis that the pregnant woman will engage in conduct that would result in the pregnant woman's death or a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman or based on any reason related to the woman's mental health.

They are counting viability to be measured at 20 weeks gestation and abortion to be banned thereafter. More lowlights and link to full text here.

On Tuesday, new legislation was entered into the House that is designed to defund Planned Parenthood (companion legislation is expected in the Senate). HB 298 rewrites laws governing distribution of funds and is a Medicaid work around. The new legislation says:

Sec. 3701.033. (A) All funds distributed by the department of health for the purpose of providing family planning services, including funds the department receives through the "Maternal and Child Health Block Grant," Title V of the "Social Security Act," 95 Stat. 818 (1981), 42 U.S.C. 701, as amended, and through Title X of the "Public Health Service Act," 84 Stat. 1504 (1970), 42 U.S.C. 300a, as amended, shall be awarded as follows:

(1) The department shall award funds with foremost priority given to eligible public entities that provide family planning services, including community health clinics and similar health facilities operated by state, county, or local government entities.

(2) To the extent funds are available after the department determines that all eligible public entities have been fully funded under division (A)(1) of this section, the department may award funds to nonpublic entities in the following order of descending priority:

(a) Federally qualified health centers, as defined in section 3701.047 of the Revised Code;

(b) Nonpublic entities that provide comprehensive primary and preventive care services in addition to family planning services;

(c) Nonpublic entities that provide family planning services, but do not provide comprehensive primary and preventive care services.

(B) This section does not apply to grants awarded by the department under section 3701.046 of the Revised Code.

Sec. 5101.101. (A) All funds distributed by the department of job and family services for the purpose of providing family planning services, including funds the department receives through Title XX of the "Social Security Act," 88 Stat. 2337 (1974), 42 U.S.C. 1397, as amended, and funds received through Title IV-A of the "Social Security Act," 110 Stat. 2113 (1996), 42 U.S.C. 601, as amended, to be used for purposes of providing Title XX social services, shall be awarded as follows:

(1) The department shall award funds with foremost priority given to eligible public entities that provide family planning services, including community health clinics and similar health facilities operated by state, county, or local government entities.

(2) To the extent funds are available after the department determines that all eligible public entities have been fully funded under division (A)(1) of this section, the department may award funds to nonpublic entities in the following order of descending priority:

(a) Federally qualified health centers, as defined in section 3701.047 of the Revised Code;

(b) Nonpublic entities that provide comprehensive primary and preventive care services in addition to family planning services;

(c) Nonpublic entities that provide family planning services, but do not provide comprehensive primary and preventive care services.

(B) This section does not apply to the medicaid program.

If you were wondering, Planned Parenthood is not a federally qualified health center. And, of course, Planned Parenthood does not "provide comprehensive primary and preventive care services in addition to family planning services" as said in (b). So, basically, they'll "fully fund" state agencies first--then if any money is left: FQHCs, then any non-public clinics that provide comprehensive primary care, and then they might give money to organizations like Planned Parenthood. And we all know just how much money Ohio is rolling in these days, right?

To realize some of the effect this will have on Planned Parenthood in Ohio, here is information about how Title X (mentioned in Sec. 3701.033.) works there:

•In 2006, 79 family planning centers in Ohio received support from Title X. They included:

Health department clinics: 16
Community health centers: 4
Planned Parenthood clinics: 26
Hospital outpatient clinics: 11
Other independent clinics: 22

•These centers provided contraceptive care to the following numbers of clients:

Health department clinics: 11,360
Community health centers: 1,570
Planned Parenthood clinics: 68,300
Hospital outpatient clinics: 13,940
Other independent clinics: 24,980

Planned Parenthood saw more patients--and this is just for Title X services--than all the rest combined (which totals 51,850).

You can read full text of the proposed legislation & its list of sponsors and co-sponsors here.