Alabama joins states defunding Planned Parenthood

Alabama has become the latest state to terminate funding for abortion giant Planned Parenthood, following the release of undercover videos showing the organization’s trade in baby body parts.

On Thursday, Republican Gov. Robert Bentley issued a letter saying he was ending Alabama’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood Southeast, which operates centers in Birmingham and Mobile.

“The deplorable practices at Planned Parenthood have been exposed to Americans. I’ve terminated any association with the organization in AL,” Bentley tweeted. “I respect human life, and I do not want Alabama to be associated with an organization that does not.”

In the letter, Bentley served Planned Parenthood notice its Medicaid contract would end in 15 days. The abortion provider has 60 days to file an appeal.

According to AL.com, Alabama had paid Planned Parenthood a total of $4,351.37 in fiscal years 2014 and 2015 to reimburse Medicaid patients for IUDs, contraceptive implants, and shots.

Alabama is the third state this week to cut funding from Planned Parenthood. Although a U.S. Senate vote to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood failed 53-46 on Monday, Republican elected officials are recognizing that public outrage over Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue program is providing an opportune moment to cut ties with the group.

A series of secretly recorded videos released by the Center for Medical Progress has shown Planned Parenthood officials haggling over the price of organs from babies freshly killed and dismembered at its facilities. Profiting from the sale of body parts is illegal, but Planned Parenthood claims it only accepts reimbursements for procuring the tissue. Planned Parenthood Southeast claims it does not operate a fetal tissue donation program in Alabama.

On Monday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced his state was canceling its Medicaid agreement.

“Planned Parenthood does not represent the values of the people of Louisiana and shows a fundamental disrespect for human life,” Jindal said. “It has become clear that this is not an organization that is worthy of receiving public assistance from the state.”

And on Wednesday in New Hampshire, the state’s five-member Executive Council voted against a $639,000 contract with Planned Parenthood, citing concern over the fetal tissue videos.

“You can’t divorce what’s going on nationally from Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and we need a real investigation,” said Republican Councilor David Wheeler.

Notably, Councilor Chris Sununu, a pro-abortion Republican, also voted against the Planned Parenthood contract—although he voted in favor of such a contract in 2011.

“Things are different now,” he said. “We have to take a step back and just take a pause and say, is this a company and a business that we should be actively engaging [with]?”

The contract rejection will cut Planned Parenthood’s public funding by about one-third in New Hampshire. It will still receive federal money in the state.

Planned Parenthood received $528 million in government funding during fiscal year 2014—41 percent of its $1.3 billion budget.

Some of the organization’s government funding comes through states, and the rest comes from the federal budget. Three-quarters of Planned Parenthood’s federal dollars come in the form of Medicaid reimbursements for treating low-income men and women.

Planned Parenthood has claimed only 3 percent of its services involve abortions. But that figure is misleading because the organization counts each pregnancy test, HPV vaccination, or test for a sexually transmitted disease as a “service.” In fact, more than 1 in 10 of Planned Parenthood’s clients go to the organization for an abortion, PolitiFact estimates.

The organization carried out 327,653 abortions last year, and provided 1.1 million emergency contraceptive kits, according to its annual report.

State defunding of Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid money may be easier said than done. Planned Parenthood Southeast CEO Staci Fox warned in a statement Thursday that federal courts have ruled against states excluding abortion providers from Medicaid services.

After Indiana passed a law in 2011 preventing Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding, the abortion provider sued. A two-year legal battle ended with a federal judge permanently blocking Indiana’s law, citing a federal statute that gives patients the right to choose their providers.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Indiana’s appeal in 2013. But if Planned Parenthood took another state to court over Medicaid—and lost—the Supreme Court might be persuaded to weigh in on the matter.

Meanwhile, abortion opponents hope to keep the pressure up on governors and Congress.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins sent out a tweet Thursday afternoon using the trending hashtag #DefundPlannedParenthood: “With an $18 trillion deficit, don’t you think we could find better uses for the money?”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.