House Leaders Statement on Passage of Bill Barring DHHS from Contracting with Planned Parenthood

House Leaders Statement on Passage of Bill Barring DHHS from Contracting with Planned Parenthood 

  CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) today offered the following statement on the passage of House Bill 228, which prohibits the department of health and human services from entering into a contract with any organization that provides abortion services and prohibiting the use of public funds for abortion services. HB 228 passed 207 to 147.
 
House Speaker William O’Brien
 
“The state should be sending a clear message that taxpayers should not be funding abortions, and this bill does just that. The majority of people agree that regardless of individual beliefs taxpayers should not be forced to contribute to the largest abortion provider in America when so many are diametrically religiously and morally opposed to the practice of abortions.”
 
House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt
 
“In these difficult economic times when we have been forced to deeply cut budgets, taxpayers should not be forced to fund any capable of funding themselves. In 2009, Planned Parenthood reported a profit of $21.7 million. In 2010 they reported a profit of $5.6 million. They claim economic hardship has forced them to turn away patients in need of prescriptions, yet their CEO last year made three times the salary of our Governor. The organization also spent nearly $700 thousand on public affairs, over $151 thousand on lobbying legislators and almost $450 thousand on ‘improving their branding.’ They even had enough money to transfer more than $200 thousand over to their Political Action Committee.”