State of Washington Gifts Planned Parenthood $11 Million To Cover Shortfall
Washington state officials will take $11 million from an emergency fund to give to Planned Parenthood to ensure it could keep aborting babies.
The decision followed President Donald Trump’s signing of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a massive budget law that defunded Planned Parenthood for one year.
The new federal law generally prohibits abortion vendors from receiving federal Medicaid funding.
Democratic Governor Bob Ferguson “said the state will use emergency funds from the Washington State Health Care Authority to backfill the estimated $11 million in lost federal support,” according to King 5, a local NBC affiliate.
“For a short-term gap like this, what we’ll be doing is going to our Health Care Authority. They have a large budget,” Ferguson said on July 9. “This is about a half of 1% of their budget — the millions we would need to backfill this.”
The money will only be used if a challenge to the law fails in federal court. While a judge temporarily blocked Congress from defunding Planned Parenthood, it seems likely the bill will go into effect. Law Professor Josh Blackman has pointed out the oddity of a judge ordering the executive branch to spend money on something the legislative branch has not appropriated.
In any case, Gov. Ferguson’s comments about the $11 million being a small part of the money Planned Parenthood will lose underscores the financial precariousness the abortion facilities are in due to funding cuts.
Prior to Congress passing the budget deal, Planned Parenthood said 200 of its “health centers” could close, even in pro-abortion states.
Already, Planned Parenthood officials in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Colorado are saying the financial cuts will hurt them.
While a permanent defunding of Planned Parenthood would have been better, the one year deal is a positive step toward closing the nation’s largest abortion vendor. It seems likely many of these Planned Parenthood facilities cannot last a year, so even if the money comes back they will not easily be able to reopen.
Planned Parenthood will say that this bill harms their patients who receive non-abortion healthcare. But in reality it is Planned Parenthood who is choosing to stand by their ardent support for killing babies instead of taking Medicaid payments. All Planned Parenthood has to do is stop performing abortions and it can take Medicaid patients again.
Congress should go further and continue to defund Planned Parenthood until it is completely gone. It could also bolster funding for federally-qualified health centers, which do not kill babies, to ensure everyone can access real healthcare, like wellness exams. Taxpayers should support the poor and neediest who need healthcare – but they should not be forced to subsidize abortions.
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About the Author
Matt Lamb
Matt Lamb is an associate editor for The College Fix and a contributor to Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He also works as a reporter for LifeSiteNews. He previously worked for Students for Life Action, Students for Life of America, and Turning Point USA.
When will Catholic bishops get serious: maybe even go to an IVF lab and get some genes to grow themselves a SPINE — you know, the thing that enables them to stand up straight for something? Generally more effective than handwringing. Ferguson, Washington’s Governor, is a Catholic. He’s channeling money to abortionists. He just signed legislation to violate the confidentiality of the confessional. Washington has had doctor-assisted killing almost 15 yrs. If the bishops DON’T get serious, they will usher in the culture of death by their utter passivity. Even Newton could not imagine such an example of inertia.
What about, “State of Washington GIVES PP $1 mil. . . .” ? Let us be done with the “gifting” this and “gifting” that.