Pro-choice group: Fix, don't end, state fund

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:27:15 -0500

A Planned Parenthood chapter says a list of budget cuts is the wrong direction on abortion funding.

A list of proposed cuts from agency heads for the budget given to Gov. Beverly Perdue includes a $50,000 line item for the state abortion fund, which is designed to help poor women pay for abortions.

Paige Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Central North Carolina chapter of Planned Parenthood, said that as far as her organization knows, no woman has received help from the program since 1995.

That year, a budget partly written by then Sen. Perdue slashed the fund by 96 percent, while the fund was restricted to poor women who were not on Medicaid and needed an abortion because of rape, incest or life endangerment.

Still, Johnson said eliminating the program would be bad, saying her organization would prefer Perdue lift the restrictions to help women who are losing their health care in today's tough economy.

She added that it would not save the state much.

"We're talking $50,000," she said. "This is not going to make or break the state budget."

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Pro-choice group: Fix, don't end, state fund