Abortion

Roundup: Manchin Introduces Title X Audit Reporting Bill

Beth Saunders

DC Abortion Fund helps women whose Medicaid-funding for abortion was pulled at the last minute; Florida senate wants to subject Medicaid funding for contraception to religious refusals; and Sen. Manchin thinks showing that no Title X money is spent on abortion will solve something.

DC Abortion Fund helps women whose Medicaid-funding for abortion was pulled at the last minute, Florida senate wants to subject Medicaid funding for contraception to religious refusals, and Sen. Manchin thinks showing that no Title X money is spent on abortion will solve something.

  • Twenty-eight women who were scheduled to terminate a pregnancy yesterday in the District of Columbia had intended to use Medicaid to pay for the procedure. But thanks to the budget deal reached in Congress, that funding expired at midnight on April 13. The DC Abortion Fund sent out an emergency plea to their supporters, and late last night, tweeted this good news:

    More women will need help in the coming days, not to mention for the foreseeable future.

  • Florida. Wow. The state legislature is really hating on birth control these days. The state senate has removed a mandatory provision for state Medicaid plans to provide contraception. Instead, they have introduced an amendment stating “Medicaid plans may elect to not provide birth control and other family planning services ‘due to an objection on moral or religious grounds.’”
  • Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has sponsored the Title X Transparency and Verification Act, which would require the Department of Health and Human Services to post independent audits verifying that Title X family planning money is not used for abortion. The audits are already conducted, but according to Manchin, are hard to access. He would like the public to be able to “easily access and independently verify information that not one single federal taxpayer dollar is used to fund abortions in this country.” Yes, because presenting radical anti-choicers with facts usually solves an issue. 

Apr 15

Apr 14