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2014 SESSION

14100711D
HOUSE BILL NO. 531
Offered January 8, 2014
Prefiled January 6, 2014
A BILL to prohibit state funds for Planned Parenthood.
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Patrons-- Marshall, R.G. and Poindexter
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Referred to Committee on Appropriations
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. That the General Assembly finds:

That Margaret Sanger, founder of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., noted that "Birth Control is thus the entering wedge for the Eugenic educator ... the unbalance between the birth rate of the 'unfit' and the 'fit,' admittedly the greatest present menace to civilization ... the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective" (Margaret Sanger, Birth Control Review, October 1921); and

That then-president of the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., Dr. Alan Guttmacher, opposed congressional efforts to require health warning labels for the birth control pill, telling a subcommittee of the United States Senate, "I do not think you are going to be able to educate the American woman as to what she should or should not do with regard to the Pill," and wrote in 1968 that "abortion and sterilization on request should certainly be introduced before family size by coercion is attempted" (Guttmacher, Presidential Letter, No. 34, July 17, 1968); and

That the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., has long played semantic gymnastics with the conscience of women who distinguish on moral grounds preventing pregnancy from intentionally ending a pregnancy. Planned Parenthood and Population Council advisor Dr. Christopher Tietze, in response to concerns expressed at a medical conference over the abortafacient properties of the IUD, suggested not disturbing "those people for whom this is a question of major importance. ... if a medical consensus develops and is maintained that pregnancy, and therefore life, begins at implantation, eventually our brethren from the other faculties will listen." (Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Intra-Uterine Contraception, October 1964); and

That the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., regularly overstates deaths and complications from natural pregnancy and understates deaths and complications from legal abortion and prescriptive birth control; and

That the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., has opposed laws providing parental consent for abortion or teen birth control and has gone to court to enforce their opposition; and

That personnel employed by clinics operated by the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., and its subsidiaries have been shown to willingly provide so-called "reproductive" services to teenage girls reporting sexual relations with a male that would constitute statutory rape; and

That programs of the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., have not reduced the incidence of out-of-wedlock births, abortion, divorce, or women in poverty, have resulted in greater rates of out-of-wedlock pregnancy among teenagers and single parenthood by women after their teen years, and have resulted in an increase in the incidence, prevalence, and number of venereal diseases; and

That the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., consistently misrepresents the abortion-causing properties of prescription "birth control"; and

That the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., has gone to court to compel the use of federal tax dollars for abortion on demand; and

That the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc.'s 2011-2012 Annual Report shows that in 2011 the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., and its affiliates performed 333,396 abortions, took in $1,199,100,000, and received $542.4 million in "Government Health Services Grants and Reimbursements," and that for every adoption referral made by the Planned Parenthood Federation, Inc., and its affiliates in 2011, 145 elective abortions were performed; and

That according to their website, "The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is ... [an] organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America ... The Planned Parenthood Action Fund Political Action Committee ... is ... committed to supporting pro-choice ... candidates for federal office"

That the Wall Street Journal stated, in 2013, that “Planned Parenthood agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle a federal civil suit claiming that it fraudulently billed Medicaid for women's health services provided by some of its Texas clinics from 2003 to 2009.  Friday's settlement resolved a whistle-blower suit ... for services that were not provided or that were not needed by patients, including birth-control counseling and testing for sexually transmitted diseases” (Wall Street Journal, 8/16/13).

§ 2. That no state funds shall be provided to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., or any subsidiary or affiliate thereof.