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Some Ohio Planned Parenthoods Are Getting Help To Serve Low-Income Women
By: Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau
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Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio is tapping into the national organization’s emergency funds to be able to provide birth control and other health care services to low income women. This move allows the organization to comply with a Trump administration order that bans federal dollars from going to clinics that refer clients for abortions.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio had been getting about $4 million from the federal government to provide birth control and health care services, but not abortion, to low income women. Spokeswoman Sarah Inskeep says it is the only provider of its kind in nine Ohio counties and without help from the national Planned Parenthood organization, low income women would suffer.
“So we are talking people that have nowhere else to go who come in for what they know is a need for health care and they can come in and not fear being turned away for their inability to pay for their service that day,” Inskeep says.
Ohio lawmakers have already stripped the organization of more than $1 million in state funding. Meanwhile, the state’s new budget provides $7.5 million dollars to health centers that steer women away from abortion options. Those centers may or may not provide birth control options.