States should not fund an organization facing credible criminal allegations and currently being investigated by Congress and a dozen state governments.
That’s the opinion of one pro-choice politician in New Hampshire who previously supported allotting taxpayer dollars to his state’s Planned Parenthood clinics. Republican executive councilor Chris Sununu voted last Wednesday against renewing the state’s contract with the abortion provider.
With Planned Parenthood, “you have a criminal investigation on a federal level,” Sununu tells National Review, referring to a congressional probe into the organization launched by House Republicans. “If this had been any other business with this type of legal and ethical scrutiny, there would be no question about cutting state funds.”
The state’s elected council voted to cut $639,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood. Their success may have been partly due to New Hampshire’s unique process, in which its elected council works with the governor to approve large state contracts.
The five undercover videos released so far by the Center for Medical Progress unveiling Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of fetal parts — and apparently the illegal alteration of abortion procedures in order to preserve those parts — have given pause to even some staunch pro-choice advocates. The videos “disgusted” Sununu, who joined Hillary Clinton in calling them “disturbing.”
Sununu, who is considering a bid for governor of New Hampshire, had previously voted to allot a portion of Title X funds for Planned Parenthood “that go to very important health-care needs,” he says. Although Sununu has “never been a fan” of Planned Parenthood, he says that in his district, its clinics are women’s “only choice” for certain health services.
The launch of the congressional investigation, however, prompted Sununu to search for alternative providers. He asked the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to aid in his search.
New Hampshire has a variety of clinics and hospitals with different services and specializations. “The options are definitely there,” Sununu says. “We need to entice those providers to bid” on this newly available contract, especially because “more-rural areas do have sparser health care.”
Sununu laments that Democrats in his sate “seem to go out of their way to ignore” the urgent questions raised by the videos released by CMP. Governor Maggie Hassan has refused to investigate New Hampshire’s Planned Parenthood clinics based on what she calls “a rumor.” “We do not launch criminal investigations in the state of New Hampshire because somebody edits a tape,” she said. Hassan declined to help expand women’s alternatives to Planned Parenthood.
That decision “made no sense,” Sununu says. “It was beyond belief. How providing choices is ever a negative thing, I can’t imagine. She’s trying to justify the monopolistic position Planned Parenthood has put themselves in.”
The councilor does not view the debate over funding Planned Parenthood as a pro-choice versus pro-life issue — the issue is whether the law is being violated, he says. “Particularly on the Republican side, it’s not political, since our politicians don’t receive campaign donations from Planned Parenthood,” he says. “The governor’s misplaced passion for the organization indicates politics.”
New Hampshire’s successful move to defund Planned Parenthood underlines the fact that, even if Congress succeeded in cutting off federal dollars, the states would need to act to fully untangle public money from the organization.
Sununu hopes New Hampshire will be an example for other states: “Change can happen at the local level.”