Wisconsin joins other states in cutting Planned Parenthood funding

On top of Friday night's pro-life win, which will bar the University of Wisconsin-Madison from sending its ob/gyn medical school residents to be trained in abortion procedures at Planned Parenthood in Madison, we have this article about defunding Planned Parenthood in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Wisconsin is on track to join other states that are targeting Planned Parenthood by cutting or ending its access to state and federal dollars.

The Joint Finance Committee, which writes the state budget, voted last month to bar organizations that provide abortions from receiving grants given to city and county health departments, community health centers and clinics for family planning.

Planned Parenthood was the only organization that provides abortions to receive grants from the program.

State and federal law prohibits public funds from being used to pay for abortions. But nine clinics operated by Planned Parenthood were receiving about $1 million a year in state and federal funding under the program.

The nine clinics, in communities such as Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Beaver Dam and Johnson Creek, do not perform abortions. But social conservatives have long opposed Planned Parenthood's receiving any public funds.

"This is a step in the right direction," said Matt Sande, who oversees legislative affairs for Pro-Life Wisconsin, a group that opposes abortion and public funding for birth control.

Sande of Pro-Life Wisconsin said that family planning should not be funded with tax dollars. The group's position is that "government-funded birth control" increases promiscuity.

"We would like a total defunding of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin," Sande said.

"Pregnancy is not a disease," he added. "Birth control is not health care. It's a lifestyle choice."