Nevada Pro-Life Advocates Stop Taxpayer Funding of Planned Parenthood

The recently called Special Session of the Nevada Legislature ended late last night. The Governor called the session to deal with crime, jobs, and healthcare. One of the bills, SB5, creates a new statewide healthcare grant program in the amount of $60 million from the State General Fund to address provider shortages and bolster Nevada’s healthcare infrastructure. It establishes a competitive, metrics driven grant process administered by the Nevada Health Authority.

Once the session started, it was discovered that Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro had inserted a carveout for Planned Parenthood into the bill. Nevada Right to Life worked quickly to raise awareness, communicate concerns, and get an amendment moving, working alongside legislators who were also appalled by the deal. Together, we ensured the issue was addressed immediately. We thank Governor Joe Lombardo for negotiating an amendment to ensure abortions are not funded through SB5.

THE AMENDMENT

SB5 now contains two critical phrases: “money must not be expended for any abortion” and “Money awarded through a grant from the Account must not be used to supplant money previously budgeted for a proposed project.”

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This re-focused the goals of this important bill on addressing shortages of doctors and medical specialties felt across the state. Abortion is NOT healthcare.

While it is always preferable for Planned Parenthood to be INELIGIBLE, the bill when taken as a whole, is a competitive grant program in the amount of $60 million to address “certified areas of need” (a critical shortage of providers of healthcare who practice a healthcare profession or specialty, a critical shortage of providers of health care professions or geographic area of this State). It will be difficult for Planned Parenthood to meet the requirements and if they do, they will be strictly monitored and their application and budgets will be FOIA-able and publicly available.

Nevada Right to Life thanks Governor Joe Lombardo for the amendment that re-focused this important bill on improving healthcare access across the state; Assemblymen Jill Dickman, Rich DeLong, and Danielle Gallant for their work on the committee to approve the amendment; and Senators Ira Hansen, Jeff Stone, Robin Titus, and Carrie Buck for sounding the alarm on the Senate Floor.

Thank you to all of you for getting the word out and sending emails to the legislature. Your involvement was critical.

LifeNews Note: Melissa Clement is the president of Nevada Right to Life.