In talking with several friends and colleagues in both the House and the Senate, I recently learned that an official with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services admitted that the Cabinet submitted at least $331,300 in taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky through local health departments. I also recently watched some video footage from the Center for Medical Progress on Planned Parenthood that was beyond disturbing; the videos showed conversations of Planned Parenthood executives discussing how to better harvest organs from unborn fetuses that were being aborted. Abortion is not something I support, but to take it a step further and actually go in and take the organs of the unborn and sell them for personal profit is disheartening to say the least.
As a pro-life legislator, I cannot conceive how the Cabinet for Health and Family Services could possibly justify taxpayer funding to an organization like Planned Parenthood, be it directly or indirectly. With unlimited access to taxpayer-funded women’s health care services guaranteed by Medicaid and Kynect, how could the Cabinet allow this to happen?
I am told that a representative of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services claimed that the only funds involved were from federal sources, but the source of these public funds is irrelevant. The Kentucky General Assembly is the only body with the constitutional authority to direct where funds collected by the Kentucky Treasurer will be appropriated, except in emergency situations.
From the Senate Majority Caucus, Senator Max Wise (R-Campbellsville) and Senator Brandon Smith (R-Hazard) have already announced the filing of separate pieces of legislation to deal with this issue, and I pledge to give them my full support. The recent national events involving Planned Parenthood is completely unacceptable; we as legislators must remain diligent in our fight to protect the rights of the unborn.