On Friday, Governor Gary Herbert announced that Planned Parenthood will no longer receive federal funds in Utah from the state government. The Salt Lake Tribune reports:
Gov. Gary Herbert has ordered all state agencies to stop funneling federal funds to the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.
The federal government provides grants to Planned Parenthood, which are distributed through the Utah Department of Health. Utah law bars any organization from using state funds for abortions, and that prohibition extends to Planned Parenthood’s federal grants, Herbert said in a statement Friday afternoon. …
The governor noted that other government agencies and nonprofits will still provide education and prevention programs for sexually transmitted diseases.
In late July, Karrie Galloway, President of the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, stated:
While Planned Parenthood Association of Utah does not participate in fetal tissue donation programs, we stand by Planned Parenthood affiliates around the country who do.
Since Galloway’s statement, additional undercover videos have been released, showing top Planned Parenthood abortionists and officials participating in the sale of fetal body parts. On tape, they admit that babies are born in the clinics before abortions are performed – which means they are likely born alive and killed or left to die.
The videos have shown America tiny baby hands, legs, and brains. One top abortionist was heard announcing, “It’s a baby,” as the bloody pieces of an aborted baby were being picked through in a medical pie plate. Her assistant agreed: “Another boy!”
The sixth undercover video, released this week, shows a whistleblower who once worked inside Planned Parenthood clinics, collecting and shipping baby parts for fetal parts’ buyer, StemExpress. She describes that women’s rights are expressly violated and their babies’ bodies are sold even without their consent.
With such a situation, rife with illegalities, continuing to brew, it is little wonder that a number of states are choosing to defund Planned Parenthood or distance themselves from the abortion giant in other legal ways. If Planned Parenthood affiliates want to stand together – despite laws being broken, women being harmed, and babies being killed and sold for profit – they will likely fall together, under the law, as well.
Fox 13, in Salt Lake City, further clarified Governor Herbert’s actions:
Officials with the Governor’s Office tell FOX 13 News the move does not mean Planned Parenthood will not be able to receive those federal funds, just that the Utah Department of Health will no longer act as a pass through.
Saturday, Herbert elaborated on the statement… “If they want to engage with the federal government directly and get their money, I think that’s fine.”
As this leaves the door open for Planned Parenthood to receive taxpayer dollars and act in the state of Utah with federal funding, it is not a total defunding by Governor Herbert. He specifically errs by referring to the taxpayers’ money as “their” – Planned Parenthood’s – money.
Yet, his announcement is a step in the right direction, as states need to close the door – in many ways – on Planned Parenthood, ending its ties with government.
With Governor Herbert’s announcement, Utah has now joined Louisiana, New Hampshire, Alabama, and Arkansas in defunding Planned Parenthood or ending participation in the funneling of federal money to the abortion giant since the release of the undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress.
